Psicologia em Revista
Print version ISSN 1677-1168
Abstract
MENDES, Luiza da Costa and GARCIA, Claudia Amorim. The destinies of the work of the negative in borderline patients. Psicol. rev. (Belo Horizonte) [online]. 2012, vol.18, n.2, pp.277-292. ISSN 1677-1168. https://doi.org/10.5752/P.1678-9563.2012v18n2p277.
This paper starts from the assumption of an unbreakable link between drive and object and discusses the structuring and pathological effects of the work of the negative, an expression of the death drive, in the beginnings of psychic existence. When well succeeded the work of the negative makes it possible for the object to be erased and allows for the appearance of psychic representations and substitute objects. The failure of the work of the negative in borderline patients, however, hinders the constitution of the structuring void and interferes with thought processes. Psychic anesthesia, drive decathexis, splitting and extrarepresentational outlets are some of the pathological manifestations that emerge showing that the primary object has not been erased, a main characteristic of the borderline pathology
Keywords : Work of the negative; Object; Death drive; Borderline patients; Psychic constitution.