A series of discriminant function analyses based only on clinical symptomatology suggests that psychotic and neurotic depressives do not differ globally but at a fairly specific level and that the principal, if not only, clinical difference between the groups is one of severity. This interpretation is reinforced by the fact that there are few symptoms more common in the neurotic group. There is suggestive evidence that symptoms generally thought to characterize neurotic depression may conduce to referral to psychiatric services. The neurotic depressive syndrome as classically conceived may therefore be an artificial one, created by selective factors bringing patients with particular symptoms into hospital populations.