The present translation, though based on that of 1925, has been very largely rewritten. As we learn from Dr. Ernest Jones (1955, 367-8), Freud had expounded the theme of the present paper to him in January, 1914; and he spoke of it to the Vienna Psycho-Analytical Society on December 30 of that year. He wrote a first draft of the paper in February, 1915. He submitted this to Abraham, who sent him some lengthy comments, which included the important suggestion that there was a connection between melancholia and the oral stage of libidinal development (pp. 249-50). The final draft of the paper was finished on May 4, 1915, but, like its predecessor, it was not published till two years later.