The Negative: A Contemporary Introduction
Book Details
- Publisher : Routledge
- Published : May 2026
- Cover : Paperback
- Pages : 140
- Category :
Psychoanalysis - Catalogue No : 98615
- ISBN 13 : 9781032402796
- ISBN 10 : 1032402792
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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.
Reviews and Endorsements
Dr. Holzer’s work on the Negative is an elegant and transformative read. Situating itself at the crossroads of philosophy and psychoanalysis, Dr. Holzer discusses Negation as not just the engine of destruction and absence but of creativity, the source of conflict and resolution, and even the gateway to transformation and psychic growth - a process of unique emergence through the bold confrontation with it. With breathtaking clarity and intellectual rigor, Dr. Holzer’s historical-conceptual journey weaves through Sigmund Freud, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, André Green, Laurence Horn, Donald Winnicott, and Wilfred Bion. Age-old Hegelian understandings of forms of Negation are brought into creative focus with psychoanalytic thinkers. This is an invaluable text that clearly illustrates the importance of a relationship between philosophy and psychoanalysis.
Loray Daws, PhD, DPsa, Psychoanalyst and Clinical Psychologist, Author of Introduction to the work of Harry J.S. Guntrip.
In this remarkable textbook, the Negative is restored to its rightful place: not as a void or lack, but as a generative, shaping force at the core of the human psyche. With philosophical and psychoanalytic rigor, this book charts a journey from Hegel to Freud, from Winnicott and Bion to Green, weaving together threads from psychoanalysis, logic, and literature into a rich and lucid tapestry. It offers both scholars and clinicians an indispensable map for navigating the paradoxes of denial, absence, and psychic transformation. A powerful contribution to the field.
Prof. Dana Amir, Ph.D, Clinical Psychologist, Supervising and Training Analyst, The Israel Psychoanalytic Society and the University of Haifa.
Table of Contents
1. The Logic of Negation
2. Hegel: A Philosophy of Negativity
3. Freud on Negation
4. Winnicott: The Negative Side of Relations
5. Bion: The Realm of the Minus
6. André Green: The Work of the Negative
About the Author(s)
Rakefet Efrat Holzer is a researcher at the Tel Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Israel.
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