ABSTRACT
Breakdown phenomena and related symptoms are common features in psychoanalytic treatment dealing with severe disturbances of continuity and ego-integration. The first part of this paper traces ideas about breakdown and recovery mainly through review of Winnicott's work in this area. The second part describes a period of breakdown that occurred during an advanced stage in the analysis of a very courageous young woman, Ms R. This period, which Ms R came to refer to as “my breakdown”, involved two years of reliving continuous, almost unbearable anxiety, disorientation, and pain which seemed to have been carried from her early childhood. The description focuses especially on a series of transference dreams produced over the course of one year that reflect Ms R's working through these powerful early anxieties on the way to important growth, symbolization, and recovery.
