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The Creative Self: Beyond Individualism
Winner, 2025 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
“Be the best you can be!” Practically from the moment we are born, we are taught to optimize our lives—to 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.
“Be the best you can be!” Practically from the moment we are born, we are taught to optimize our lives—to 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.
- GenresNonfiction
305 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 21, 2025
About the author
Mari Ruti
48 books145 followersMari Ruti is Distinguished Professor of critical theory and of gender and sexuality studies at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada. She is an interdisciplinary scholar within the theoretical humanities working at the intersection of contemporary theory, continental philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, cultural studies, trauma theory, posthumanist ethics, and gender and sexuality studies.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 26, 2026
"The creative self" is a beautiful and touching book. It navigates gently between complex abstract psychoanalytical concepts and how they relate to us in a direct manner.
The book is largely based on the works from Marion Milner and Donald Winnicott. While Milner's approach focused on a creative approach to psychic growth and healing, Winnicott's method was concentrated on the role of early environment and care in human development. Some of the theoretical background is founded in Lacan and Nietzsche's work, which is familiar and comforting.
This specific arrangement is beyond reasonable if one wishes to understand the perils of the practises of neoliberal individualism, as the author's successfully attempt. I found a section particularly interesting: "The rise of the individual".
The construction of the "individual" is traced back to Kant's Copernican revolution, during the Enlightenment, where he proposed that the source of knowledge lies not on the phenomena, but instead in the faculties of the mind that allow for epistemic access. This philosophical shift towards the subject, coincided with a shift from the notion of political and cultural value of an individual centred on religious or hereditary traditions, towards values determined intrinsically by the individual. As observed in the French and American revolutions. Concomitantly, industrial capitalism started to replace agrarianism (in Europe).
This Kantian revolution empowered the subject, by placing the knowledge about the world in its mind, but at the same time, it alienates the subject from whatever is beyond the veil of perception. Good examples of this alienation are western colonialism, christian evangelism and patriarchy. The gained agency and independence is followed by the a loss of authentic relationship with the object and thier social surrounding.
Any relativistic implication of this process is misguided. Au contraire, an universalisation of the Mind's capacities is a natural conlcusion. The mind faculties are not characteristic to single individuals, but instead, they are shared across all of humankind. In Kantian transcendental idealism, knowledge of the world is based upon impersonal and immutable epistemological laws.
This aspect of rationalism came to underly a radical neoliberal idea that the financial marketplace is an abstract, morally and political neutral, structure. This tactic taps into the idea of a transcendent, neutral realm, as if the market existed beyond the relationship between humans. Hayek, e.g., discarded the idea that economics is a tool, which is a pragmatic keynesian approach. Following on the ideas from John Stuart Mill, we became a homo economicus. Self-interest is at the center of most transactional daily relationships. Profit became a goal. (I would go as far as to broaden the concept of profit towards a not necessarily monetary based. The gain can come in various ways. Networking with friends that can offer pleasures we seek. Visiting places that help us to achieve personal goals. Streak count on learning apps. Improving our milestone on fitness apps, &tc). The foundation of society became the self-optimization.
'"If I read between my exercise intervals, I can finish this chapter before 4pm", "This movie has little dialog, maybe I can listen to a podcast at the same time." "Two hours free?? I think I can finish that game..." The productivity of leisure is the cabal proof of the victory of capitalism!'
The zenith of the individualism we observe nowadays can be epitomise by Tacher's famous quote: “There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families.”
More pronounced than any negative effect of this shift, is neoliberal's fomenting of dichotomic thinking, a rebranded version of the law of noncontradiction, routinely found on philosophical writings from Aristotle to Kant. The sum of a radical rationalism, alienation from social life and focus on a pathological self-optimization gives origin to a divided, opposing, and dogmatic individuals. "I either hold tight to my own position or a conceed to the other". Public discourses reduces complex dynamics to mere stand-offs. Mixed with a lack of emotional awareness and control, we can only hope for the best, but expect the worst.
In this sense, an ethos that focus on introspective, open, and creating living, could remedy the perils of a radically individualistic life.
The book is largely based on the works from Marion Milner and Donald Winnicott. While Milner's approach focused on a creative approach to psychic growth and healing, Winnicott's method was concentrated on the role of early environment and care in human development. Some of the theoretical background is founded in Lacan and Nietzsche's work, which is familiar and comforting.
This specific arrangement is beyond reasonable if one wishes to understand the perils of the practises of neoliberal individualism, as the author's successfully attempt. I found a section particularly interesting: "The rise of the individual".
The construction of the "individual" is traced back to Kant's Copernican revolution, during the Enlightenment, where he proposed that the source of knowledge lies not on the phenomena, but instead in the faculties of the mind that allow for epistemic access. This philosophical shift towards the subject, coincided with a shift from the notion of political and cultural value of an individual centred on religious or hereditary traditions, towards values determined intrinsically by the individual. As observed in the French and American revolutions. Concomitantly, industrial capitalism started to replace agrarianism (in Europe).
This Kantian revolution empowered the subject, by placing the knowledge about the world in its mind, but at the same time, it alienates the subject from whatever is beyond the veil of perception. Good examples of this alienation are western colonialism, christian evangelism and patriarchy. The gained agency and independence is followed by the a loss of authentic relationship with the object and thier social surrounding.
Any relativistic implication of this process is misguided. Au contraire, an universalisation of the Mind's capacities is a natural conlcusion. The mind faculties are not characteristic to single individuals, but instead, they are shared across all of humankind. In Kantian transcendental idealism, knowledge of the world is based upon impersonal and immutable epistemological laws.
This aspect of rationalism came to underly a radical neoliberal idea that the financial marketplace is an abstract, morally and political neutral, structure. This tactic taps into the idea of a transcendent, neutral realm, as if the market existed beyond the relationship between humans. Hayek, e.g., discarded the idea that economics is a tool, which is a pragmatic keynesian approach. Following on the ideas from John Stuart Mill, we became a homo economicus. Self-interest is at the center of most transactional daily relationships. Profit became a goal. (I would go as far as to broaden the concept of profit towards a not necessarily monetary based. The gain can come in various ways. Networking with friends that can offer pleasures we seek. Visiting places that help us to achieve personal goals. Streak count on learning apps. Improving our milestone on fitness apps, &tc). The foundation of society became the self-optimization.
'"If I read between my exercise intervals, I can finish this chapter before 4pm", "This movie has little dialog, maybe I can listen to a podcast at the same time." "Two hours free?? I think I can finish that game..." The productivity of leisure is the cabal proof of the victory of capitalism!'
The zenith of the individualism we observe nowadays can be epitomise by Tacher's famous quote: “There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families.”
More pronounced than any negative effect of this shift, is neoliberal's fomenting of dichotomic thinking, a rebranded version of the law of noncontradiction, routinely found on philosophical writings from Aristotle to Kant. The sum of a radical rationalism, alienation from social life and focus on a pathological self-optimization gives origin to a divided, opposing, and dogmatic individuals. "I either hold tight to my own position or a conceed to the other". Public discourses reduces complex dynamics to mere stand-offs. Mixed with a lack of emotional awareness and control, we can only hope for the best, but expect the worst.
In this sense, an ethos that focus on introspective, open, and creating living, could remedy the perils of a radically individualistic life.
June 25, 2025
Mari Rutin postuumisti julkaistu, yhdessä Gail Newmanin kanssa kirjoittama kirja luovuudesta kapitalistisessa järjestelmässä. Olen rakastanut Mari Rutin kirjojen selkeää, havainnollista ja uutta ajattelua herättävää kirjoitusta hänen muissa kirjoissaan, ja sitä saadaan nytkin, mutta ei ihan yhtä viimeistellysti - ilmeisesti työ on jäänyt kuitenkin jollain tavalla kesken, kun Ruti pari vuotta sitten kuoli syöpään.
Tässä kirjassa kirjailijat tarkastelevat Marion Milnerin ja David Winnicottin käsityksiä luovuudesta osana ihmisyyttä, ja erityisesti luovuuden ja kapitalistisen ajattelun välistä ristiriitaa, joka tulee ilmi ennen kaikkea hyödyn ja voiton tavoittelussa, josta luovan toiminnan pitäisi pystyä sanoutumaan irti. Ajatukset ovat raikkaita, syvällisiä ja kiinnostavia. Mutta jos et jaksa lukea koko kirjaa, kuuntele tämä mainio podcast, jossa Gail Newmania haastatellaan kirjan kirjoitusprosessista - ihanaa kuunneltavaa!: https://soundcloud.com/podcast-co-coo...
Tässä kirjassa kirjailijat tarkastelevat Marion Milnerin ja David Winnicottin käsityksiä luovuudesta osana ihmisyyttä, ja erityisesti luovuuden ja kapitalistisen ajattelun välistä ristiriitaa, joka tulee ilmi ennen kaikkea hyödyn ja voiton tavoittelussa, josta luovan toiminnan pitäisi pystyä sanoutumaan irti. Ajatukset ovat raikkaita, syvällisiä ja kiinnostavia. Mutta jos et jaksa lukea koko kirjaa, kuuntele tämä mainio podcast, jossa Gail Newmania haastatellaan kirjan kirjoitusprosessista - ihanaa kuunneltavaa!: https://soundcloud.com/podcast-co-coo...
August 22, 2025
Creativity as a concept is quite close to my heart and so is creative living. Hence, this book The Creative Self: Beyond individualism by Gail Newman and Mari Ruti was a quick pick for me.
About the book, I would say it is the kind of book that you would read and then reread to get more and more understanding of the concepts. The main premise is about the antidote towards neoliberal self optimization in form of creative living. The book does have the vibe of academic writing. So when some concepts are simple, there are some where one needs to do some more reading too.
I would like to thank Netgalley for the advance digital copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.
About the book, I would say it is the kind of book that you would read and then reread to get more and more understanding of the concepts. The main premise is about the antidote towards neoliberal self optimization in form of creative living. The book does have the vibe of academic writing. So when some concepts are simple, there are some where one needs to do some more reading too.
I would like to thank Netgalley for the advance digital copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.
January 5, 2026
I found the Mari Ruti half of this book to be more interesting than the Newman half.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews