The negative: an overview

Abstract

This paper addresses the category of Negative in the field of Psychoanalysis, presenting its main conceptions and the modalities in which it expresses itself. The Negative is viewed as fundamental to the principle of psychic work. By distinguishing its three main forms, the paper attempts to analyze the relation between certain forms of the Negative and certain configurations of the intersubjective bond. It also confers a privileged place to the Unconscious Alliances - which are acquired in the basis of the Negative, and to certain effects of these alliances on the capacity of thinking.