"This book proposes creative living as a response to neoliberalism--the instrumentalist, individualistic, opportunistic, and narcissistic ethos that has permeated social life in the West at least since the Second World War. At the level of the individualneoliberalism is reflected in self-optimization, the attempt that many people make to constantly improve their performance and efficiency, especially in the context of their working lives but increasingly in their personal lives as well. In this view theself is assumed to be perfectible, and effort and a positive attitude are all it takes to augment our productivity on every level, thereby becoming happier and more successful. From making "rational" choices about our education-for instance, by choosing law school or business school over a graduate degree in the humanities-to making sure that we eat well, exercise regularly, and marry the right kind of partner, we are optimizing our lives without even necessarily realizing that this is what we are doing.That we have marginalized fields that have historically been associated with creativity rather than with quantifiable "knowledge" says a great deal about our current social priorities. Mari Ruti and Gail Newman present an alternative to this mentality, arguing that psychoanalysis, which almost by definition encourages the flourishing of the creative self, offers a means of combating self-optimization by assisting analysands to find purpose and meaning in their lives and to mobilize their creative potential. No thinkers better characterize this effort than Marion Milner and D. W. Winnicott. Friends who were deeply influenced by each other's work, nothing mattered more to them than the liberation of the individual's creative potentialities. Both Milner's attempt to extract from each day the item, object, moment, or experience that most made her happy or piqued her interest and Winnicott's theorization of the parameters of a true self-the kind of self that is capable of exercising the full range of its creative potentialities-provide us with a blueprint for creative living. Milner and Winnicott define creativity broadly as any activity that brings meaning, substance, or pleasure to the individual's life: not limited to intellectual, artistic, or spiritual achievements, it entails the capacity to build a life that feels worth living. Both recognize that it is a second-order consideration, addressable only after the basics of survival have been attended to; it is at the same time a luxury and a necessity for the psychic, affective, and physical well-being of human beings. This paradox hovers as the backdrop to ontological and existential questions about the contours of human life, such as what the so-called "good life" might entail and what might bring vitality and meaningfulness to individual lives; it resides at the core of creativity. The quest for a rewarding life cannot be separated from the psychic and affective realities of lack, negativity, and nothingness; the creative self is more resilient in the face of adversity because it accepts loss as a necessary component of human life"--
The Creative Self delves into the hegemony of neoliberal self-optimization and turns to psychoanalysis in search of an alternative.
Be the best you can be! Practically from the moment we are born, we are taught to optimize our livesto devote ourselves to increasing our productivity and efficiency, which, we are told, will make us happier and more successful. The imperative of constant self-improvement, however, drains us dry even as it promises to build us up.
The Creative Self delves into the hegemony of neoliberal self-optimization and turns to psychoanalysis in search of an alternative. In paired chapters, Mari Ruti and Gail M. Newman examine the works of the psychoanalysts Marion Milner and Donald W. Winnicott. They provide deeply personal accounts of how these thinkers resonate with day-to-day life, exploring modes of selfhood that subtly but profoundly resist the lure and escape the trap of competitive individualism. Milner urges us to relinquish the ego in the face of loss and lack, and Winnicott asks us to accept the paradoxes of the self instead of demanding their resolution. Together, their insights help us flourish where neoliberal self-improvement would stifle us. Combining the intellectual, the personal, and the political from two perspectives that converge and diverge in striking ways, this book offers an antidote to transactional individualism and envisions forms of creative living beyond its confines.
