19 th International Congress of the ISPS, New York 2015 - Do psychiatrists need to recognise negation?

Abstract

Since the publication of Freud’s Die Verneinung in 1925 psychotherapists have been dealing with the concept of negation. In our opinion there is still confusion about the exact meaning of this term. As a consequence, the importance of negation in the psychotherapeutic practice is often underestimated. In Fagioli’s Human Birth Theory the concept of negation is fundamental. Negation is a notion that refers to unconscious reality. In contrast to an intentional lie, which is communicated through verbal speech, negation corresponds to unconscious thoughts, which are expressed by images that are found in dreams. During sleep there is a transformation away from consciousness, verbal speech, and intentional motoric movement; language is altered and expressed through images. Negation operates at this level and deforms the image. This deformation of the image happens in an unconscious process. During this, positive qualities (mainly mental qualities) of the other are intuited and immediately negated, if the relationship to the other is stamped by envy. This negation distorts the reality of the patient and his ability to interact with the other. Accordingly, the relationship will be aggressive/destructive. One way to clinically identify such deformation is dream interpretation. The task of the psychiatrist is therefore to identify and interpret the negation in the deformed dream images during the psychotherapeutic process. Through this process the patient will be able to intuit and realise (instead of negate) the positive qualities of the other and integrate these into his reality. Only human interaction that is free from negation enables the patient to overcome the ideo-affective splitting, which allows recovery of positive affects and the possibility of developing evolutive relationships.