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In his "Reply to Jean Hyppolite's commentary on Freud's ''Negation'' (1954), [[Lacan]] describes a primordial act of affirmation which is logically prior to any act of [[negation]].<ref>Lacan. "Reply to Jean Hyppolite's commentary on Freud's ''Negation''". 1954b.</ref>
[[Lacan]] uses [[Freud]]'s [[German]] term, ''[[Bejahung]]'' ('[[affirmation]]') to denote this primordial affirmation.<ref>{{Ec}} p.387</ref>
Whereas [[negation]] concerns what [[Freud]] called the "judgement of [[existence]]," ''[[Bejahung]]'' denotes something more fundamental, namely the primordial act of [[symbolization]] itself, the inclusion of something in the [[symbolic|symbolic universe]] universe.
Only after a thing has been [[symbolize]]d (at the level of ''[[Bejahung]]'') can the value of [[existence]] be attributed to it or not (''[[negation]]'').
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[[Lacan]] posits a basic alternative between ''[[Bejahung]]'' and the [[psychotic]] mechanism he later calls '[[foreclosure]]'.
