By central phobic position the author describes a mental state arising in the session that is characterized by a perturbation of associative functioning and linked to manifestations of negativity. Destructivity here has to do with the subject’s own psychic processes and implies a denial of psychic reality on the subject’s part. The central phobic position attempts, via the interruption of associations, to avoid the potentialisation of different traumas punctuating the patient’s history. Theoretical conclusions, based on a rereading of Freud’s article on negation are drawn from this discussion.
Keywords: Free association, destructivity, denial of reality, foreclosure, negative hallucination, phobia, work of negativity.