Negation and related levels of defensive verbal behavior.

Abstract

Modern psychoanalytic theory has been primarily concerned with ego functions. Negation is thought to be one of the most basic ego functions--if not the most basic ego function. Freud first introduced the concept in 1915 with his paper, "The Unconscious", and then further developed it in his paper entitled "Negation" in 1925. Jones and Spitz have both made recent theoretical contributions that serve to clarify and extend the meaning of the concept. Basically, negation, as a thought mechanism, serves adaptation by allowing a repressed or inhibited idea to enter consciousness to be used for consciously acceptable purposes, on the condition that the idea is consciously disbelieved. The mechanism of negation tends to allay the painful affect or anxiety that is connected with an unacceptable idea. [TRUNCATED]