We study the cleavage Of O-2 in gas phase [(EDTAH)Fe(O-2)Fe(EDTAH)](2-) a proposed intermediate in the aqueous Fe(II)-to-Fe(III) autoxidation reaction in the presence of atmospheric dioxygen and EDTA ligand. The role of the exchange coupling between the locally high-spin Fe centers in the O-O dissociation is investigated. Using results from broken symmetry (BS) density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we show that the system can be modeled as two high-spin (HS) S = 5/2 Fe(III) d(5) centers coupled through a bridging peroxo O-2(2-) ligand, consistent with hypotheses advanced in the literature. We show that in this electronic configuration the O-O cleavage reaction is forbidden by (spin) symmetry. Dissociation of the O-2(2-) group to the product ground state may only take place if the system is allowed to undergo a transition to a state of lower spin multiplicity (S = 4) as the O-O bond is stretched. We show that the exchange coupling between the two Fe ions in [(EDTAH)Fe(O-2)Fe(EDTAH)](2-) plays only a minor role in defining the chemistry Of O-2 activation in this system. The peroxo/oxo interconversion involves a state outside the Heisenberg spin ladder of the initial S = .5 state. In this S = 4 state, the dinuclear complex evolves to two oxo complexes, [EDTAH center dot Fe(IV)O](-), with an overall energy barrier of only similar to 86 kJ mol(-1). According to recent theoretical work, the latter species are exceptionally strong oxidants, making them ideal candidate catalysts for organic oxidations (including C-H bond hydroxylation). We highlight the (spin) symmetry forbidden nature of the reaction on the S = 5 surface and its symmetry allowed character in the electronic configuration with S = 4.