Description
Book SynopsisNoëlle McAfee uses psychoanalytic theory to explore the subterranean anxieties behind current crises and the ways in which democratic practices can help work through seemingly intractable political conflicts.
Fear of Breakdown contends that politics needs something that only psychoanalysis has been able to offer.
Trade ReviewIn exploring the fear of breakdown that underlies human existence, Noëlle McAfee creates a genuine intellectual breakthrough—her book is a stunningly original exploration of the political significance of mourning. This is one of the most thrilling books I have read in years. -- Mari Ruti, author of
Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings: The Emotional Costs of Everyday LifeFear of Breakdown is a tour de force that provides us with a new framework that resolves some of the tensions between psychoanalysis and politics through an interpretation of D. W. Winnicott’s notion of breakdown. McAfee offers us nothing less than a rethinking of key terms of politics—citizenship, deliberation, false consciousness, and nationalism, to name a few. A must-read for anyone concerned with the crisis of democracy. -- Drucilla Cornell, coauthor of
The Spirit of Revolution: Beyond the Dead Ends of ManHercules had twelve labors but, if Noëlle McAfee is right, democratic citizens have only six tasks to undertake for the Herculean task of reclaiming democracy. Guided by Winnicott’s penetrating insight that the fear of breakdown is a fear of what has already happened, McAfee develops a vision of politics as a deliberative practice of political working through, open to 'radical questioning and learning anew.' A joy to read. -- Bonnie Honig, author of
Public Things: Democracy in DisrepairWhere Freud’s rather dark account of human nature tended to hypostatize the antisocial aspects of the psyche, subsequent psychoanalytic theorists on the left have tended to err in the opposite direction, painting an overly socialized picture of the human animal. McAfee avoids both errors and develops a progressive view of politics that does not simplify the complexities of the human nature. Her analysis of Winnicott’s notion of the ‘fear of breakdown’ is especially useful for conceptualizing the current political landscape. -- Joel Whitebook, author of
Freud: An Intellectual BiographyAmbitious and provocative . . . a learned and thought-provoking call for a radical reimagination of democratic institutions. * Choice *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
By Way of a Preface
Introduction
1. Defining Politics
2. Psychoanalysis and Political Theory
3. Politics and the Fear of Breakdown
4. Practicing Democracy
5. Democratic Imaginaries
6. Becoming Citizens
7. Definitions of the Situation
8. Deliberating Otherwise
9. Political Works of Mourning
10. Public Will and Action
11. Radical Imaginaries
12. Nationalism and the Fear of Breakdown
Conclusion: Working Through the Breakdown
Notes
References
Index
