When John Keats died 200 years ago, on 23 February 1821, he was just 25 years old. Yet, despite his short life, he remains one of the greatest poets in the English language. But in addition to his literary legacy, he also left behind a very interesting psychological concept: negative capability.
What is negative capability?
Keats lost many of his family members to tuberculosis, which would also take his own life. As a result of these early losses, the poet had developed a deep sense of uncertainty in life.
At Christmas 1817 he wrote a letter to his brothers in which he referred to negative capability, but he did not use the adjective in a derogatory way, but rather to refer to the ability to resist justifying that which we do not understand.
Inspired by Shakespeare’s work and while out for a walk, he said that “suddenly several things dovetailed in my mind, & at once it struck me” and referred to negative capability, understanding it as the ability of a man to be “capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.”
Keep an open mind and free from prejudice
“The only means of strengthening one’s intellect is to make up one’s mind about nothing — to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts” he wrote.
Negative capability is precisely the ability to observe and contain ourselves, to remain in a state of open waiting in which we suspend judgments, tendencies toward rationalization and empiricism.
It is about not giving in to the epistemophilic impulse, that urgent pressure to “know or find out what it is about.” Instead, we must sustain the question, keep the doubt in suspense, with an open mind, without clinging to any prejudice or preconceived idea.
Keats reminds us that we are more likely to learn something new if we stop assuming that we know everything, whether about a topic or about people, which often only leads to reductionist labels.
Those who learn and grow the most are precisely those people who are willing to question their assumptions and embrace new perspectives. Thus, at the heart of Keats’s negative capability is intellectual humility.
The art of embracing uncertainty
Rather than jumping to conclusions about an event, idea or person, Keats advised taking time to continue paying attention and better understand what is happening. However, to do so, we must be able to deal with uncertainty and doubt.
If we are not comfortable enough with the uncertain terrain, we will be quick to generalize and will probably fall into false assumptions, spurious judgments or biased conclusions.
Obviously, we must also be able to hold in mind a series of mutually contradictory ideas and feelings. We must deal with paradoxes without despairing and, above all, without questioning them or trying to resolve them at all costs.
Of course, uncertainty can be uncomfortable, especially when we’re not used to it. We prefer the security of certainty, so it’s often tempting to stop thinking about complex issues and jump to conclusions that give us at least an illusion of control, but Keats advised just the opposite.
If we resist the temptation to pigeonhole life and are able to embrace uncertainty, we can open the door to a new world of ideas, much more complex and multifaceted, but also much closer to the reality that we often insist on simplifying.
References:
Qian, D. (2024) A Review of John Keats’s Negative Capability. US-China Foreign Language; 22(9): 506-509.
Gunderman, R. (2021) John Keats’ concept of ‘negative capability’ – or sitting in uncertainty – is needed now more than ever. In: The Conversation.
Malpartida, D. (2013) De la Capacidad Negativa de Keats a la Capacidad Negativa del Psicoanálisis. Revista Psicoanálisis; 11: 123-135.
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