{"product_id":"fear-of-breakdown-politics-and-psychoanalysis-9780231192699","title":"Fear of Breakdown: Politics and Psychoanalysis","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat is behind the upsurge of virulent nationalism and intransigent politics across the globe today? In \u003ci\u003eFear of Breakdown\u003c\/i\u003e, Noëlle 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. Working at the intersection of psyche and society, McAfee draws on psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott's concept of the fear of breakdown to show how hypernationalism stems from unconscious anxieties over the origins of personal and social identities, giving rise to temptations to reify exclusionary phantasies of national origins. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eFear of Breakdown\u003c\/i\u003e contends that politics needs something that only psychoanalysis has been able to offer: an understanding of how to work through anxieties, ambiguity, fragility, and loss in order to create a more democratic politics. Coupling robust psychoanalytic theory with concrete democratic practice, \u003ci\u003eFear of Breakdown\u003c\/i\u003e shows how a politics of working through can help counter a politics of splitting, paranoia, and demonization. McAfee argues for a new approach to deliberative democratic theory, not the usual philosopher-sanctioned process of reason-giving but an affective process of making difficult choices, encountering others, and mourning what cannot be had.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNoëlle McAfee is a professor of philosophy and the director of the Psychoanalytic Studies Program at Emory University. Her books include \u003ci\u003eHabermas, Kristeva, and Citizenship\u003c\/i\u003e (2000), \u003ci\u003eJulia Kristeva\u003c\/i\u003e (2003), and \u003ci\u003eDemocracy and the Political Unconscious\u003c\/i\u003e (Columbia, 2008).\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Columbia University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50614626976018,"sku":"9780231192699","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_6464fd2d-8ff7-48c9-b39e-c5fa21641049.jpg?v=1732453827","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/fear-of-breakdown-politics-and-psychoanalysis-9780231192699","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}