Chapter Sample Questions of Papers on Metapsychology - Study Guide by Sigmund Freud

Ultimately, Freud proposes that mourning allows the ego to become free and uninhibited, and in melancholia this goes further and a relation to object loss is withdrawn from consciousness. The self-reproaches seen in the melancholic condition indicate that this condition is predisposed by a disposition of the narcissistic type of object-choice. So the loss of a loved object becomes the opportunity for the ambivalence of love relation to be shown as the love becomes self-hate, or the loved object if disliked before death, becomes excessively compensated for with grief and love. The tendency for melancholia to turn around into mania also supports this relation with ambivalence. However Freud whilst suggesting the strength of this relationship, also suggests two other preconditions must be met - the loss of the object and the regression of the libido into the ego.

So, according to Freud melancholia is indeed a reflection of ambivalence in love-relationships, however his other preconditions must also be met. In sum though, it must not be forgotten that this is only the Freudian view on Melancholia, and psychoanalysis is not the exclusive authority, so also consider/ mention alternative cognitive and biological ideas behind this psychoneurosis.