Societal and psychic breakdown: Not falling under oneself

The term breakdown (collapse) is polysemous. Geology, architecture, finance, societies, animal species. . ., it also applies, albeit more insidiously, to culture and human values. As far as health is concerned, breakdown relates to the decompensation of somatic homeostasis and the loss of psychic balance. In particular, a person is no longer able to mobilize her vital energy or defense mechanisms against the death anxiety that invades her. This analogy between individual and societal breakdown made the authors of this article, both psychotherapists, think about “sinistrosis,” the discomfort and loss of meaning encompassed by the expression “brownout,” a state of gloom and pre-collapse that precedes the breakdown and the “blackout,” the latter literally synonymous with extinction. Taking as a basis D.W. Winnicott’s text “Fear of Breakdown,” the authors insist on the fact that the collapse announced by the Cassandras, collapsologists of all kinds, is not irremediable if we regain confidence in ourselves, in our future, and revive our humanistic values in order not to be dragged into a deadly maelstrom.