Abstract
ABSTRACT This paper explores how the operation of negation is primary in the life of the mind; in both senses of the word primary, developmentally primary as in infantile origins, and primary as in fundamental. The author illustrates the centrality of the operation of negation, of no, throughout the life cycle. This study begins with the hallucination of the breast as the first psychic event of the mind, and then moves to the early formation of my mind and of the self in childhood, then the formation of identity in adolescence. Finally, it concludes with adulthood and late life to illustrate how the operation of negation is part of the affirmation of life in front of death. Not only is the negative not to be dispensed of as an undesirable secondary overlay that spoils positivity, but the paper illustrates how it is foundational, at the very core of existence. Indeed negation is shown to be at the very origins of psychic life, and that it underlies the important creative acts of becoming a self through the life cycle.
Published Version
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