Basic Psychoanalytic Concepts: VII. the Negative Therapeutic Reaction

Abstract

The clinical concept of thenegative therapeutic reactionhas been included in this series for a number of reasons. It is a concept of particular importance in the history of psychoanalysis, for it represents the clinical phenomenon chosen by Freud (1923) to illustrate the workings of an ‘unconscious sense of guilt’ and to indicate the existence of what he conceived of as a special mental agency—thesuperego.Moreover, it is a concept widely used in clinical psychoanalysis, although little has been written on the subject since Freud's original formulation of it. Unlike such concepts astransference(Sandler, Dare and Holder, 1970) andacting out(Sandler, Holder and Dare, 1970a) it has not been extensively applied outside clinical psychoanalysis. This may be regarded as surprising in view of the fact that it would seem to be readily capable of application without alteration to a wide variety of clinical situations.