Breakdown

Polytheistic psychology would meet this so-called disintegration in its own language, by means of arche-typal likeness: similis similibus curantur. Each particular phenome-non in an experience of breakdown would be viewed less in terms of the construct breakdown.

Hillman argues that polytheistic psychology dissolves ‘breakdown’ as a unitary construct, redirecting each phenomenon within it back to its specific archetypal source rather than compensating with images of unity.

Hillman, James, A Blue Fire: The Essential James Hillman, 1989thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

Monotheistic psychology counters what it must see as disintegration and breakdown with archetypal images of order (mandalas). Unity compensates plurality. Polytheistic psychology would meet this so-called disintegration in its own language.

Miller contrasts monotheistic psychology’s compensatory response to breakdown — the mandala and images of order — with polytheistic psychology’s alternative of meeting disintegration through its own differentiated archetypal vocabulary.

Miller, David L., The New Polytheism: Rebirth of the Gods and Goddesses, 1974thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

what ordinarily meant by mental breakdown; defences have become unsatisfactory, and the patient has to be nursed while new defences are being organized.

Winnicott defines mental breakdown clinically as the failure of existing defences, distinguishing it from psychoneurosis and situating it within a developmental framework requiring environmental support for recovery.

Winnicott, Donald, The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment, 1965thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

the breakdown of the bicameral mind, beginning about 1200 B.C., is quite clear. It was due to chaotic social disorganizations, to overpopulation, and probably to the success of writing in replacing the auditory mode of command.

Jaynes frames breakdown as a civilizational and cognitive event — the collapse of bicameral mentality — driven by social chaos and technological change, which gave rise to prayer, divination, and ultimately modern subjective consciousness.

Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, 1976thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

This breakdown of the bicameral mind in what is called the Intermediate Period is reminiscent at least of those periodic breakdowns of Mayan civilizations when all authority suddenly collapsed, and the population melted back into tribal living.

Jaynes extends his breakdown thesis comparatively, treating civilizational collapse as a recurring historical pattern in which theocratic authority dissolves and populations revert to earlier social forms.

Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, 1976supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

D. W. Winnicott, ‘Fear of Breakdown,’ International Review of Psycho-Analysis 1 (1974)

Epstein cites Winnicott’s canonical paper on the ‘Fear of Breakdown’ as a theoretical reference point for Buddhist-inflected discussions of wholeness and dissolution of self.

Epstein, Mark, Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness, 1998supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

there is extensive documentation of the abrupt social breakdown of Muslim traditions everywhere as a consequence of encroaching free-market society and of the connection between social breakdown and fanaticism in non-Muslim societies.

Alexander deploys ‘social breakdown’ as a sociological concept linking the disruption of traditional community structures by market forces to the rise of fanaticism and addiction-like behaviors.

Alexander, Bruce K., The Globalisation of Addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit, 2008supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

it is nonetheless possible to discover the details of such structures in various pathological cases where self-awareness and self-reference break down.

Gallagher invokes breakdown as a methodological tool — pathological cases where self-awareness fails reveal the otherwise hidden complexity of normal self-referential structures.

Gallagher, Shaun, How the Body Shapes the Mind, 2005aside

Dig deeper with Sebastian →