Mirages of the Negative

Abstract

The present project aims to investigate how, since modernity, based on Descartes' philosophy, the understanding of human experience, of the modern subject, began to rely on some notion of the negative. In order to see how this has reached contemporary times, the study will also explore how psychoanalysis, specifically in its Freudian and Lacanian branches, describes the subject's experience through the lens of a negative idea. Indeed, despite being separated by approximately two centuries, the proposals of Descartes and psychoanalysis share common elements that may help elucidate their respective positions. The hypothesis we defend is that a certain idea of the negative emerges as indispensable for the adequate discussion of the human experience of this subject that emerges in modernity: firstly, this is evident in Cartesian philosophy through the proposal of the concept of passions of the soul, and secondly, in psychoanalysis through the formulation of the concept of drive. Finally, it is noteworthy that we have mainly taken Descartes' Treatise on the Passions and psychoanalytic texts on metapsychology as our starting points.