Breaking point (psychology)

In human psychology, the breaking point is a moment of stress in which a person breaks down or a situation becomes critical.^[1] The intensity of environmental stress necessary to bring this about varies from individual to individual.^[2]

Getting someone to confess to a crime during an interrogation – 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^[3] – changes which may be precipitated by a sense of helplessness,^[4] by lack of preparedness or an underlying sense of guilt,^[5] as well (paradoxically) as by an inability to acknowledge one's own vulnerabilities.^[6]

Psychoanalysts like Ronald Fairbairn and Neville Symington considered that everybody has a potential breaking point in life, with vulnerability particularly intense at early developmental stages.^[7]

Some psychoanalysts say that rigid personalities may be able to endure great stress before suddenly cracking open.^[8]

• Abreaction
• Psychotic break

• Berne, Eric (1976). A Layman's Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis.
• Fenichel, Otto (1946). The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis.
• Goleman, D. (1996). Emotional Intelligence.
• Gudjonsson, G. H. (2003). The Psychology of Interrogation and Confession.
• Kimble, G. A. (1996). Psychology.
• Skynner, R.; Cleese, J. (1994). Families and how to survive them.
• Symington, Neville (2000). Narcissism: A New Theory.