The Negative: A Contemporary Introduction

In this comprehensive book, Rakefet Efrat Holzer explores the concept of the negative from psychoanalytic, linguistic and philosophical perspectives.

Efrat Holzer provides a thorough exploration of how negation operates in psychoanalysis and beyond through a systematic examination of its philosophical origins with Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel through Sigmund Freud's foundational insights to André Green's theoretical framework. The book illuminates both destructive and creative dimensions of the negative, exploring concepts such as negative capability, transitional objects and negative hallucination. By weaving together philosophy, psychoanalysis, linguistics, poetry and literature, Efrat Holzer delivers theoretical insights alongside clinical applications, demonstrating how the negative can shape human development, thought processes and therapeutic practice.

This book is essential reading for psychoanalysts, practitioners and trainees in psychiatry, psychotherapy and social work as well as students and researchers interested in psychoanalytic theory.

Rakefet Efrat Holzer is a researcher at the Tel Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Israel.