Brain Lenses
Brain Lenses
Cruel Optimism
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Cruel Optimism

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Cruel Optimism

·
March 14, 2023

In 2011, scholar and cultural theorist Lauren Berlant published a book called Cruel Optimism, in which she outlined a concept—oriented around an idea called "affect theory"—that essentially means we're prone to a double-bind in our desires, shaped by fantasies that serve as their own hurdles.

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