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The author suggests differentiating three modes of transformation of crisis in the psyche, individual and collective: the ordeal, traumatic neurosis and catastrophe. Each calls for specific forms of psychic processing, notably in the register of historicization. These three modalities can be associated within one and the same psyche. Psychic perinatality offers valuable clinical experience with regard to this diversity. Concerning catastrophe, emphasis is placed on the negativism in the encounter. It menaces the treatment, but it is a necessary precondition for establishing the alliance and advancing towards the work of the negative and mutual recognition.