Altruism versus self-centredness in the personality of depressives in the 1950s and 1990s.

BACKGROUND

Research in personality features of patients with major depression has emphasised their tendency to set high standards for themselves. Two directions of acting on high standards have been differentiated which can be summarised as altruistic and self-centred attitudes. Typus melancholicus and narcissistic personality features are representative for them. Since both types of features are age correlated, the question had to be settled whether this reflects an individual process of social adaptation or an epochal change of values.

METHODS

The study is based on a representative sample of case records of first episode depressives. Two cohorts of the 1950s and two of the 1990s were sampled. In both decades, one cohorts' age of onset was below 40 whereas the other cohorts' age of onset was over 40. Each cohort comprised 20 patients, yielding a total sample of 81 patients. The information from the records was prepared and evaluated in a two step procedure according to v. Zerssen.

RESULTS

Increase of altruism and decrease of self-centredness with advancing age could be confirmed. There is a weak to moderate epochal decline of altruistic attitudes only in the older cohorts and a marked increase of self-centred attitudes in both, the young and the old cohorts.

LIMITATIONS: The assessment of depression diagnosis and personality types by means of case records in a retrospective design could limit the reliability and validity of the measured concepts. In addition, items regarding narcissistic features were not validated in other samples.

CONCLUSION

Both, the age effect and the epochal effect show that such aspects should be born in mind for the psychotherapeutic treatment of depressive patients. This is especially important since basic personality attitudes contribute to the etiology of depression, partly conveyed by societal values, partly by requirements of life-spans in the individual life history.