Jamieson Webster, "On Breathing: Care in a Time of Catastrophe" (Catapult, 2025)

Feb 20, 2025

Jamieson Webster, a New York City psychoanalyst and author, dives deep into the transformative power of breath in her captivating conversation. She connects breathing to emotional awareness and societal neglect, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Webster discusses the interplay of breath and trauma, exploring how our lungs reflect grief and acceptance. She critiques modern communication's impact on anxiety, emphasizing the importance of mindfulness and somatic practices in navigating contemporary existential challenges. A thought-provoking exploration of air, life, and our shared vulnerabilities!

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INSIGHT

Freedom's Delusion

The pursuit of individual freedom, especially in America, is becoming a delusional nightmare.
COVID-19 highlighted the conflict between personal freedom and collective responsibility, exposing the limits of individual liberty.

INSIGHT

Reich's Fantastical Theories

Reich, initially a proponent of somatic approaches to psychoanalysis, developed increasingly fantastical theories.
His trajectory highlights the dangers of denying loss and the limitations of idealized freedom.

INSIGHT

Breath's Limits

The idealization and sacralization of breath are tempting but ultimately unproductive.
The focus should be on the interplay of breath, speech, and language, not on breath as a standalone solution.

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A few moments after birth we begin to use our lungs for the first time. From then on, we must continue breathing for as long as we are alive. And although this mostly happens unconsciously, in a society plagued by anxiety, climate change, environmental racism, and illness, there are more and more instances that “teach us about the privilege that is breathing.” Why do we so easily forget the air that we breathe in common? What does it mean to breathe when the environment that sustains life now threatens it? And how can life continue to flourish under conditions that are increasingly toxic?

To approach these questions, Jamieson Webster draws on psychoanalytic theory and reflects on her own experiences as an asthmatic teenager, a deep-sea diver, a palliative psychologist during COVID, a psychoanalyst attentive to the somatic, and a new mother. The result is a compassionate and timely exploration of air and breathing as a way to undo the pervasive myth of the individual by considering our dependence on invisible systems, on one another, and the way we have violently neglected this important aspect of life.

Jamieson Webster is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City and faculty at The New School for Social Research. She is the author, most recently, of On Breathing (Peninusula Press, UK; Catapult, US), as well as, Conversion Disorder: Listening to the Body in Psychoanalysis (Columbia, 2018) and, with Simon Critchley, Stay, Illusion! The Hamlet Doctrine (Vintage Random House, 2013). She has written regularly for Artforum, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, as well as, many psychoanalytic publications.

Helena Vissing, PsyD, SEP, PMH-C is a Licensed Psychologist practicing in California and Associate Professor in the Somatic Psychology program at California Institute of Integral Studies. She can be reached at contact@helenavissing.com. She is the author of Somatic Maternal Healing: Psychodynamic and Somatic Treatment of Trauma in the Perinatal Period (Routledge, 2023).

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