Andre Green and the Negative

An Online Reading and Discussion Group facilitated by

Robert S. White, MD

Instructional Level: Intermediate to Advanced

A Note from the HPS Program Chair: One of the concepts being explored in HPS programs this year is vitality both in human development and the clinical process. Whereas vitality evokes a sense of aliveness, the opposite sense is exemplified by Andre Green’s concept of the dead mother. Our study group will examine this iconic concept along with Green’s ideas about work with the negative. While his writing can be difficult to grasp, we are fortunate that the group will be taught by Robert S. White, MD, who has studied, written, and presented about Green’s contributions. ***** JoAnn Ponder 

This study group will explore the contributions of Andre Green, especially his ideas about the negative. There has been a growing interest in his work as his publications have become more widely available in translation and we are increasingly aware of unrepresented mental states. However, Green’s papers are difficult for American psychoanalysts to read. His thinking is steeped in continental philosophy and the work of Lacan. Green’s writing style, with its abrupt leaps and half-thought-out conclusions, is brilliant—but very difficult to follow.  

We will try to enter Green’s world through his best-known and most clinical paper, “The Dead Mother.” We will explore his concepts of blank depression, black holes, disobjectalization, the death drive, negative narcissism, and withdrawal of investment to find their clinical significance.  We will trace Green’s ideas to those of Freud, Winnicott, and Bion. Finally, we will return to the clinical and use the fictional story of Peter Pan to illuminate the experience of deadness.

This study group is appropriate for clinicians with an intermediate to advanced understanding of psychoanalytic theory. Registration will be limited to 23 participants, and the assigned readings will be provided to them. Registration will close September 29 or when the cap is reached, whichever comes first. 

Robert White, MD is a graduate of the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis, where he is currently on the faculty. He also directs the psychodynamic training program at the Western New England Psychoanalytic Society and is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. He has been a member of the North American Comparative Clinical Method Committee and a member of the IPA Committees on Clinical Observation and Working Parties. Dr. White has been in private practice of psychiatry and psychoanalysis in New Haven, CT.

Dr. White has a deep understanding of the work of Andre Green, particularly his use of the negative, the Death Drive, and the processes of decathexis. His published works on Green, including 'The Way of the Negative' in JAPA (65: 1119-1126, 2017) and 'Peter Pan, Wendy, and the Lost Boys: A Dead Mother Complex' in JAPA (69: 51-74, 2021), have garnered significant recognition. The latter paper, in fact, was awarded the prestigious Holzman Award for best paper in applied psychoanalysis from Michigan in 2020 and remains one of the most downloaded papers from the JAPA website, a testament to its impact and relevance.

Session 1 - October 1, 2024

Green, A. (1980/2003). The dead mother. In On private madness. London: Karnac, pp. 142-173.

White, R. S. (2017. French and English masters: The Work of the Negative. By André Green. Book Review. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 65: 1119-1126.

Objectives

1. Explain what Green means by the dead mother complex and the resulting blank depression and frozen love, followed by attempts at reanimation.
2. Describe what Green means by the use of the negative, especially the death drive, blank holes, disobjectalization, negative narcissism, and negative hallucinations.

Session 2 - October 8, 2024

Green, A. (1999). An introduction to the negative in psychoanalysis. In The work of the negative. Trans. A. Weller. London: Free Association Books, pp. 1-13.  

Green, A. (1999). The death drive, negative narcissism, and the disobjectalising function. In The work of the negative. Trans. A. Weller. London: Free Association Books, pp. 81-88.

Green, A. (2005). The work of the negative. In Key ideas for a contemporary psychoanalysis: Misrecognition and recognition of the unconscious. Trans. A. Weller. London: Routledge, pp. 212-226.

Objectives

1. Describe the relationship of Green’s ideas about the negative to the thinking of Freud (later conceptualizations), Lacan, Winnicott, and Bion.
2. Describe how Green reinterprets the death drive and its functions of disobjectalizing, unbinding, and withdrawal of investment.

Session 3 - October 15, 2024

Winnicott, D. W. (1953). Transitional objects and transitional phenomena. In Playing and reality. London: Tavistock, 1971, pp. 1-25.  

Green, A. (1975). The analyst, symbolization and absence in the analytic setting (On changes in analytic practice and analytic experience)—In memory of D. W. Winnicott. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 56: 1-22.

Green, A. (1997). The intuition of the negative in Playing And Reality. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 78: 1071-1084.

Objectives

1. Explain the relationship of Green’s disobjectalization to Winnicott’s early environmental failure.
2. Describe what Green means by symbolization and absence in the analytic setting.

Session 4 - October 22, 2024

Bion, W. R. (1962). Chapter Three. Learning from experience. New York: Routledge, pp. 8-10. [alpha and beta]

Bion, W. R. (1962). Chapter Sixteen. Learning from experience, pp. 59-62. [K]

Bion, W. R. (1962). Chapter Twenty-Eight. Learning from experience, pp. 119-124. [-K]

Green, A. (1998). The primordial mind and the work of the negative. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 79: 649-665.

Objectives

1. Explain Bion’s concepts of alpha, beta, K and -K.
2. Describe how Green makes use of Bion’s concepts of the primordial mind, negation, K and -K, and reverie.

Session 5 - October 29, 2024

White, R. S. (2021). Peter Pan, Wendy, and the Lost Boys: A dead mother complex. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 69: 51-74.

Ogden, T. H. (1995). Analysing forms of aliveness and deadness of the transference-countertransference. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 76: 695-709.

Sekoff, J. (1999). The undead: Necromancy and the inner world. In G. Kohon (Ed.), The dead mother: The work of Andre Green. London: Routledge, pp. 109-127.

Objectives

1. Explain how the author of Peter Pan, James Barrie, is part of a dead-mother complex and how the fantasy life of Peter Pan illuminates the dead-mother.
2. Describe the clinical significance of aliveness and deadness in the treatment process. 

IMAGE of dead tree from Can Stock

APA Accreditation Statement

Houston Psychoanalytic Society is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Houston Psychoanalytic Society maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

HPS, through co-sponsorship with the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies, also offers approved CEUs for Texas state-approved social workers, licensed professional counselors, and marriage and family therapists.