Negative capability

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Negative capability (German negative ability ) is a literary theoretical term that was coined by the English poet John Keats . It describes the ability to accept that not every complex issue can be clarified; for Keats, "great" thinkers, especially poets, must have this ability. Many of Keats' poems are strongly influenced by this idea.

meaning

As a romantic , Keats gave authority to the truths found in the human imagination . Since this authority cannot be explained from outside, uncertainty has to be accepted. This state of uncertainty is located between everyday reality and the countless possibilities of its perception and interpretation. Keats first used the term negative capability on December 22, 1817 in a letter to his brothers George and Thomas:

I had not a dispute but a disquisition with Dilke, on various subjects; several things dovetailed in my mind, & at once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in literature & which Shakespeare possessed so enormously - I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries , doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.
I didn't have an argument with Dilke, but an investigation into various subjects; several things came together in my mind, & all of a sudden I became aware of the quality that makes a man of great deeds especially in the literature that Shakespeare possessed in such extraordinary measure - I speak of negative capability , that a person is able to to be in a state of uncertainty, mystery and doubt without looking nervously for facts & reason.

Negative capability describes a state of intentional open-mindedness and mindfulness , to which parallels can be found in the literary and philosophical attitudes of numerous other authors. Walter Jackson Bate , Keats' authorized biographer , wrote a book specifically on the subject.

reception

In the 1930s, the American philosopher John Dewey described Keats's negative capability as a major influence on his own philosophical pragmatism and found in Keats' letter "more of the psychology of productive thoughts than in many scientific treatises" ("[it] contains more of the psychology of productive thought than many treatises ").

Nathan Scott also points to comparisons with Martin Heidegger's concept of serenity in his book Negative Capability .

In the 20th century, the term was picked up by the psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion and found its way into psychoanalytic theory. There he means the therapist's ability to withstand doubts , paradoxes , ambivalent , confusing and misunderstood aspects in the therapeutic relationship and to withstand the pull of prematurely ending this state of ignorance by classifying them into interpretive terms or diagnostic categories. This makes it possible for the therapist to allow unknown emotional experiences in a therapeutic process - which plays a special role in working with early disturbed, psychotic or traumatized patients - and opens the therapeutic method to creative processes and learning from the patient.

Due to the inherent in the concept of artistic integration experience in therapeutic contexts he found - together with the originating also from Bion terms Rêverie and Containing  - entrance to the theory of artistic therapies . They assume that painful, misunderstood and confusing experiences through the inclusion of artistic media can be given the opportunity to find a design option outside of linguistic communication . As with Bion, in artistic therapies this takes place in the therapeutic relationship.

Due to the proximity to mystical experiences, this term was also taken up by the depth psychologically oriented pastoral care and pastoral psychology . Tom Murray discusses it in the context of an integral post-metaphysics ( Habermas , Wilber ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Complete Poetical Works of John Keats edited by Horace Elisha Scudder, Boston: Riverside Press, 1899. p. 277
  2. ↑ Dewey, John. Art as Experience. New York: Penguin Perigree (2005): 33-4.
  3. ↑ Kestenbaum, Victor. The Grace and the Severity of the Ideal: John Dewey and the Transcendent. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2002): 225.
  4. ↑ Scott, Nathan A. Negative Capability. New Haven, London: Yale University Press (1969).
  5. ↑ Bion, Wilfred R .: Learning through experience , trans. Erika Krejci, (en. Orig. Attention and Interpretation 1962) Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1992
  6. ↑ Böök, Veveka: "Negative Capability" at Keats and at Bion. Yearbook of Psychoanalysis , Volume 44, 2002, pp. 224-230
  7. ↑ Casement, Patrick: Learning from the patient. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart, 1989
  8. ↑ cf. Buchholz, Michael: PSYCHO NEWS LETTER NO. 58 , last accessed June 19, 2015
  9. ^ Tüpker, Rosemarie : Self psychology and music therapy . In Bernd Oberhoff: Music as a lover. For the self-object function of music . Psychosozial-Verlag, Göttingen 2003, pp. 99-138
  10. ↑ Klöss-Fleischmann, Axel von: Transcultural Art Therapy: Home, Migration and Foreign - Relevant for Art Therapy Action Grin-Verlag, Munich 2013, p. 68ff
  11. ↑ Wolfgang Wiedemann: Pastoral care, mysticism and psychoanalysis. Wilfrid Bion and pastoral care. In: Isabelle Noth; Christoph Morgenthaler (Ed.): Pastoral care and psychoanalysis. Kohlhammer-Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, pp. 176-190
  12. ^ Murray, Tom: Toward Post - metaphysical Enactments: On Epistemic Drives, Negative Capability, and Indeterminacy Analysis, 2011 , last accessed June 19, 2015

literature

  • Jacob D. Wigod. Negative Capability and Wise Passiveness , PMLA, Vol. 67, No. 4, June 1952, pp. 383-390. (engl.)
  • Walter Jackson Bate. Negative Capability: The Intuitive Approach in Keats , Contra Mundum Press, New York 2012. (Introduction by Maura Del Serra)

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