Not Working. Why We Say Stop

The book by British psychoanalyst Josh Cohen is dedicated to our relationship with work, or rather - the desire not to work that is embedded in each of us, which by no means coexists smoothly with the desire to work - to achieve success, prestige, and well-being, which, according to the author, is no less, and possibly even more important, perhaps 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 become accustomed to giving all our strength to work, sometimes forgetting that life is not exhausted by it. Sometimes the result is great achievements in the profession we choose, sometimes it leads to depression, and sometimes both together. How do we deal with the need for "not working," which cannot be fully realized, but denying it and suppressing it within ourselves is extremely dangerous? The author seeks to find an approach to the answer to this, surely insoluble question in his own life experience, in the stories of his patients, and in the fates of several outstanding individuals who faced the conflict between work and "not working" closely - Emily Dickinson, Orson Welles, Andy Warhol, and David Foster Wallace. This text, consisting of autobiographical essays, notes of a psychoanalyst, and subtle observations about the nature of creativity, is dictated by Josh Cohen's desire to understand himself and is capable of helping us in this endeavor.