La manie et la mélancolie comme crises de l’identité narrative et de l’intentionnalité

Objectives: Our objective is to achieve a phenomenological cross-study of melancholic and manic crises. To do this, we analyze the relationship between these two psychopathological states by means of the concepts of "narrative identity" and "intentionality". Method: From clinical cases and with reference to various theoretical models derived from phenomenological psychopathology, we discuss similarities and differences between mania and melancholia. Results: Narrative identity is based on a double movement: that of the enunciation of a speech focused on his history and that of an act of creation. From different clinical situations, we find that: (1) the melancholic retains the ability to elaborate a narrative about his history but the creative dimension of this narrative is absent, and (2) conversely, the manic experiences only the creative dimension. Discussion: Intentionality, as the tendency of consciousness to move toward something beyond itself, proves to be the center of the manic existence without being able to set itself within the boundaries of factual constraints. The melancholic, conversely, experiences an existence in which consciousness has lost its capacity to aim beyond itself. Conclusions: Melancholia and mania are quite specific forms of being-in-world with particular identity and temporal experiences. These two states share a fundamental psychopathological feature, that we named here “manque chiasmatique”: they are disorders of the intentional movement that constitutes narrative identity, that is, of the dialectics between the rootedness (“enracinenment”) of self in its past and the possibility of creation of a new identity.