Introduction

In his 1974 paper, Winnicott theorized Fear of Breakdown – a persistent terror of impending catastrophe that occurs as a result of traumatic, unprocessed rupture in the early mother-infant relationship. What is feared in the future has, in effect, already occurred in the past, but has never been known or truly lived. Instead, these primitive agonies manifest in tormenting anticipation of imminent disaster. As we endure these dark times and witness the rise of fascist leaders, horrific global wars, racist divisions, environmental threat, and proliferating destruction, fear of breakdown and dread of doom has become a living reality, affecting each of us in our multiple implications – not equally, but nonetheless corrosively.

For this snapshot series, we have asked a range of psychoanalytic thinkers to comment on Winnicott’s profound construct and its implications theoretically, clinically, and culturally. What follows is a remarkable and diverse collection of brief essays, in which each of our contributors offer their unique perspectives and associations to the theory of Fear of Breakdown.

Amy Schwartz Cooney, Ph.D., Jack Foehl, Ph.D., Stephen Hartman, Ph.D. and Lauren Levine, Ph.D.

Joint Editors-in-Chief, Psychoanalytic Dialogues