In human psychology, the breaking point is a moment of
stress in which a person breaks down or a situation becomes critical.
The intensity of environmental stress necessary to bring this about varies from individual to individual.
Interrogation
Getting someone to confess to a crime during an
interrogation
Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...
– whether innocent or guilty – means the suspect has been broken. The key to breaking points in interrogation has been linked to changes in the victim's concept of self – changes which may be precipitated by a sense of helplessness, by lack of preparedness or an underlying sense of
guilt, as well (paradoxically) as by an inability to acknowledge one's own vulnerabilities.
Life
Psychoanalyst
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...
s like
Ronald Fairbairn and
Neville Symington
Neville Symington (3 July 1937 - 3 December 2019) was a member of the Middle Group of British Psychoanalysts which argues that the primary motivation of the child is object-seeking rather than drive gratification. He published a number of books ...
considered that everybody has a potential breaking point in life, with vulnerability particularly intense at early developmental stages.
Some psychoanalysts say that rigid personalities may be able to endure great stress before suddenly cracking open.
See also
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Abreaction
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Psychotic break
Bibliography
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References
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Figures of speech
Psychological stress