The capacity to be free

This article conceptualizes the capacity to be free starting from what I call a breakdown of fear in the analytic situation, in complementarity with the fear of breakdown theorized by Winnicott. This approach moves away from a contemporary ideology of an a-conflictual psyche in order to question, in our hypermodernity, the articulation between environmental, family, social and political deficiencies. I put forward the hypothesis that a breakdown of fear results from the phantasized destruction of an idealized part of the analysand’s ego by the analyst, which presupposes his paternal function of hate in the transference/countertransference dynamics. This shows how the subject’s capacity to survive, particularly in his relationship to the analyst’s objective hate, makes it possible for him to encounter his “real” ego. The capacity to be free thus implies that the analyst embodies the functions of the environment. My remarks are illustrated by two clinical vignettes.