Not working. Why do we say stop

The book by British psychoanalyst Josh Cohen is dedicated to our relationship with work, or more precisely, to the desire not to work inherent in each of us, which by no means peacefully coexists with the desire to work - and achieve success, prestige, well-being - and, as the author believes, is no less and perhaps even more important, even defining for a person. This desire is familiar to us from childhood, when it is easily satisfied, but we learn to suppress it and get used to devoting all our strength to work, sometimes forgetting that life does not end with it. Sometimes the result is great achievement in our chosen profession, sometimes depression, sometimes both. What to do with the need for “non-work”, which cannot be fully realized, but which is also extremely dangerous to deny and suppress? The author seeks approaches to the answer to this seemingly intractable question in his own life experience, in the stories of his patients and in the destinies of several outstanding people who faced the conflict between work and “non-work” closely - Emily Dickinson, Orson Welles, Andy Warhol and David Foster Wallace. From autobiographical essays, notes from a psychoanalyst and subtle observations about the nature of creativity, this text is formed, dictated by Josh Cohen’s desire to understand himself and can help us in this.