The “Negative Object” in Two Cases of Sibling Trauma

Abstract

This article develops a method to address the impact of the negative (Green, 1997, 2002) in transference work with schizoid trauma survivors. Two such patients are presented, each of whom was in a kill-or-be-killed relationship with an elder brother. The author suggests that violent sibling dyads are powerful stimulators of schizoid shutdown, specifically because they are based on this black-or-white dilemma: kill-or-be-killed. It was crucial that the parents of both patients turned a blind eye to the abuse, allowing the violent elder sibling free reign over the younger. Both patients, therefore, had a double trauma to deal with: parental absence and sibling hatred. This formed a problematic object choice: absent parent or abusive sibling? The abusive elder siblings, though terrifying, were in effect all that these patients had.

Introducing a new concept, the author suggests that the abusive elder siblings became negative objects—formless forces of affect, vaguely reflecting a dangerous historical object, yet erasing that object's human features. This process of depersonification is described as a method of schizoid shutdown. In both cases the negative object caused confusion and a sense of paralysis in the transference. The author describes a method for perceiving, and then repersonifying, the negative object. This brings both the predatory sibling and the absent parent back into the transference as human objects.

Keywords:

• sibling
• schizoid
• identification
• the negative
• thirdness
• projective identification

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephanie Lewin

Stephanie Lewin, Ph.D., is a graduate of the Gordon F. Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies. She has been in private practice in New York City since 2001 and has published multiple articles regarding theory and practice of psychoanalytically focused work with schizoid trauma survivors. Lewin's work builds upon the idea that schizoid trauma survivors identify with depersonified aspects of historical objects, thus negating the powerful human impact those objects have had. Her work focuses on detecting this form of negative identification in the transference, and then weaving the awareness of the negative into a two-person context.