Olivier Bouvet de la Maisonneuve is a psychiatrist working at Hôpital Sainte-Anne, in Paris, and a psychoanalyst.
Psychoanalysis has derived some of its key concepts from Greek myths (Oedipus, Narcissus). But literature and the cinema also provide a vast stock of images, situations, characters and shared cultural references that can help us understand depression. Art and creativity used in response to a creative disorder, since depression can be seen as a failure of language and thought.
Filmmakers and novelists provide us with narratives that awaken our curiosity and show us what it is possible to create. But patients who succeed in overcoming their suffering after a lengthy process are also creators.
Drawing on an original interpretation of the foundation myths and on contemporary narratives such as films and novels, Olivier Bouvet de la Maisonneuve, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, renders the psychoanalytic process accessible and shows how the creative principle can help us understand and confront depression.

• Depression is the most widespread contemporary mental pathology.
• An original reflection on how psychoanalysis uses age-old myths and contemporary narratives created by artists and patients alike to deal with depression.
• A renewed, accessible approach to psychoanalytic discourse.