Negative theory is primarily an attempt to account for ego-related emotion and emotional disorder (anxiety, depression, etc.) in evolutionary terms. This is accomplished by regarding emotional need and disorder as arising from a conflict between the innate arational significance every living organism attaches to itself and the increasingly comprehensive conceptions produced by the reasoning process and its cumulative effects (e.g., rational society, mass communication, etc.).

In negative theory, negative thoughts and feelings (e.g., I am insignificant and there is no rational purpose to life) are not considered an intellectual dysfunction, but rather the result of one's rational faculties functioning all too well. The relative "normalcy" of most individuals is accounted for in terms of readily apparent discrete levels of consciousness (rather than subconsciousness). Thus, in the "emotionally disturbed" individual, the "knowledge" of one's insignificance relative to the sum total of reality becomes "realized" through events which transpire in those aspects of reality he perceives as the "real" universe. The very need for an external ego support system and the occurrence of emotional disorder in Homo Sapiens constitute symptoms of a deeper underlying conflict between reality itself (increasingly comprehensive conceptions of reality) and the human spirit (the egocentrism which forms the foundation of the human psyche).

The psychotherapy proposed by negative theory is in first coming to clearly understand the illusionary nature of egocentrism, but then conducting one' s life in such a fashion as to assure sufficient immediately experienced ("realized") positive data to maintain the illusion. The only major difference between a negativist and a positivist is that a negativist is aware he exists in an illusion; hence, when reality (negative thoughts and feelings) occasionally emerges from behind the smoke screen of daily activity it is no longer seen as a personal experience in which "I alone am insignificant", but rather as a universal reaction of consciousness to its true identity --- in truth --- an experience to be proud of.