PubMed · 7059083
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N Schnaper, P H Wiernik. 1982. Pseudocancer symptoms in coping.. https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-96-2-257_2
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This work is aimed at analysing the motivated reasoning underlying denial of some piece of information. Denial is first distinguished from both repression and biased interpretation; then an analysis is provided of the reasoning devices typical of denial. The rules on which reasoned denial is based are similar to those governing the individual's normal cognitive activity. Reasoned denial is here represented in the form of if-then implications, where the to-be-denied belief plays the role of a consequence drawn from a given premise. So, in order to deny such a consequence one may either deny its premise, or search an alternative consequence, or search an alternative premise, or deny the very relation of implication, and so on. Each type of reasoning is logically biased, while at the same time psychologically plausible and convincing. A typical feature shared by all the reasoning strategies considered is the identification of 'unproven' with 'false'.
Freud's 1925 paper on negation provides the foundation for exploring an expanded developmental line of negation. Incorporating evidence from child language studies and explanations from the philosophy of language, this paper describes three types of negation that emerge in a developmental sequence: rejection, refusal, and denial. Clinical examples illustrate each type of negation, demonstrating how it might appear in clinical interactions. Along the way, confusions in terminology (due partly to translation problems) and questions for developmental theory are discussed. An expanded developmental line of negation provides additional interpretive perspectives on the forms of defense that Freud was addressing in "Negation" (1925) and subsequent papers (1927, 1940a,b).
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