The Interplay of Negation and Epistemological Strategies in the Development of Agency

ABSTRACT

In this paper we look at negation from a developmental perspective. We propose that in the march toward the embodiment of the virtuous “Yes” of agency the “No” of childhood is different from the “No” of adolescence and young adulthood. In the former the “No” of negation reflects an epistemological strategy of obedience/disobedience and in the latter a strategy of wondering. How “No” is negotiated in development reflects an important interplay between the child/adolescent and their caregivers with the existential-relational position occupied most typically by the caregivers as central to whether the “No” can be one of negation or devolve into negativism. To illustrate our ideas we offer four vignettes.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Looking to the social arena that extends beyond the family matrix, some (Emler & Reicher, 1995; Leifman et al., 1995) even go so far as to suggest that there is a kind of anti-sociality at play when an adolescent does not engage in the “No” writ large that characterizes delinquent acts.

2. Sauvyre presented an earlier version of his article at the First Annual Jane C. Widseth Memorial Lecture at Haverford College (November 29, 2022), and an audience member, astrophysicist Bruce Partridge, asked: “In the sciences, it is useful to have a control experiment…So is there a corresponding ‘control experiment’ for the breaking of the child-parent bond? Are there cases in which the bond is broken without anger?” Partridge’s question and Sauvyre’s paper inspired the writing of the current article.

3. It is interesting to think here about the “lost boys” of Barrie’s (1906) novel, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. And in the 1954 musical there is an associated song, I Won’t Grow Up (Charlap, 1954) which exemplifies to large measure the negativism that stubbornly overrides any “Yes” to embracing life beyond a stagnated status when no “Wendy” (“mother”) is psychologically available for negotiation and experimentation with the “No” of negation.

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Notes on contributors

Richard E. Webb

Richard E. Webb, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with a private practice in psychotherapy in Lansdale, PA. He is the director emeritus of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at Haverford College, Haverford, PA, USA. He is interested in the intersection between existentialism and psychoanalysis, especially around the issues of agency and self-authorization.

Philip J. Rosenbaum

Philip J. Rosenbaum, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist, supervising psychoanalyst, and the director of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at Haverford College, Haverford, PA, USA. He received his psychoanalytic training at the William Alanson White Institute. His interests are in studying the commonalities between contemporary interpersonal analytic practice and cultural psychology, particularly as it is connected to field theory and understanding meaning-making processes as they occur in and are constituted by social and interpersonal situations.