JULIE RESHE

Negative psychoanalysis is a theoretical and practical approach that intersects philosophically oriented psychoanalysis, philosophical practice, and existential therapy. Negative psychoanalysis does not have a fixed definition but rather remains an ongoing collective project.

It serves as an alternative to positively oriented conventional psychology, self-help culture, and therapeutic culture in general with their focus on healing, happiness, and success. Negative psychoanalysis is shaped by the perception that positive orientation is insincere and inhumane.

While conventional psychotherapy implies the promise of deliverance from the tragedy of existence and therefore inherently pathologizes human suffering, negative psychoanalysis conceptually and practically engages with the negative aspects of existence. Drawing from the theoretical premises of depressive realism and philosophical pessimism, it acknowledges negative aspects of human existence as essential and innate. It genuinely delves into realms such as death, suicide, trauma, anxiety, depression, despair, melancholy, loss of self, hopelessness, and other dimensions of suffering. 

Negative psychoanalysis is not intended to be helpful and efficient in the sense that it does not seek to heal or alleviate suffering. Instead of offering strategies for attaining a happy and successful life, it suggests the art of gracefully enduring the pains of existence and the practice of standing alongside one another amidst that pain.

Negative psychoanalysis is not trying to save anyone, it is there for you in the dark night of your soul, when you no longer believe that salvation is possible.