Negation

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"Negation" (Fr. dénégation)

For Freud the term "negation"" (Ger. Verneinung) meant both logical negation and the action of denial.[1]

Lacan takes up Freud's concept of negation in his seminar of 1953-4 and in his seminar of 1955-6.

Lacan argues that negation is a neurotic process that can only occur after a fundamental act of affirmation called Bejahung.

Negation must be distinguished from foreclosure which is a kind of primitive negation prior to any possible Verneinung, a refusal of Bejahung itself.[2]





névrose) is u

  1. Freud. 1925h.
  2. Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book III. The Psychoses, 1955-56. Trans. Russell Grigg. London: Routledge, 1993. p.46