The following study examines André Green's view of the ‘negative’ and juxtaposes it with works of art that provide a visual representation of this dense concept. Green identified the negative in all of Freud's basic assumptions, and developed his ‘work of the negative’ from an erudite reading of Freudian theory. By filling in what he identified as gaps in Freud's work, Green produced a contemporary psychoanalysis which yields new discoveries on each reading. His work on the negative describes a dialectics of absence and presence in the human condition, and highlights the human endeavour to cope with loss. It also adds interesting insights into the notion of absence in the psychoanalytic encounter where meaning can be found once mourning occurs.

The concept of the negative is explained and then represented through absence and the loss of meaning in works by one of today's most well-known sculptors. Berlinde de Bruyckere demonstrates a profound knowledge of art history; studying her sculpture, like reading Green, is a dense and multi-layered experience. It engages the viewer in an interaction which leads back to self and, like the psychoanalytic encounter, evokes feelings of sadness and pain, as well as compassion and consolation.