Abstract

GARCIA, Claudia Amorim. Continuity and discontinuity in the constitution of the psyche. Psicol. clin. [online]. 2009, vol.21, n.1, pp. 73-89. ISSN 0103-5665.

This article is a discussion about the constitution of psychic borders in Andre Green and Donald Winnicott. We initially discuss two main Freudian hypotheses presented in 1930 which seem to support Green's and Winnicott's later contributions on this topic. Hence, the Freudian postulation of a primary undifferentiation is further developed by Winnicott by means of the use of the paradox, emblematic of his understanding of the constitution of the psyche. On the other hand, Freud's hypothesis about the inevitability of an experience of absence at the onset of psychic limits reappears in Green's concept of the work of the negative, a central event in the constitution of the psyche.

Keywords : psychic limits; paradox; work of the negative; Green; Winnicott.

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