Abstract

ROCHA, Márcia Alves da. The overwhelming emptiness: the deobjedifying function in a melancholia setting. Estud. psicanal. [online]. 2022, n.58, pp.63-72.  Epub Feb 14, 2025. ISSN 0100-3437.  https://doi.org/10.5935/2175-3482.n58a06.

The paper presents some clinical fragments of a patient with marked traces of melancholia, nuances of unconscious guilt and impossibilities of symbolization. We bring up André Green’s postulations about the deobjectifying function and negative narcissism. The object that cannot be erased occupies the psychic space that should be left empty so that the baby’s desire and ego can be structured. This occurs when the work of the negative has failed in its function of negating the primary object. Considering that the melancholic subject experiences the loss of the object as a loss of himself we will also think about the be arability of the state of helplessness present in primary erogenous masochism, which leads us to Rosenberg’s scores about deadly masochism and life-preserving masochism.

Keywords : Objectifying/deobjectifying function; Deadly masochism/life-preserving masochism; Melancholia; Negative narcissism; Work of the negative.

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