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As a system of thought, pessimism is often assumed to be too deterministic or self-contradictory to withstand serious scrutiny. I examine Nietzsche's use of the term "Dionysian pessimism" to describe his own philosophy in order to challenge these presumptions. Nietzsche was quite critical of the pessimistic philosophers popular in his day, but he nonetheless considered his own work to be a kind of Dionysian pessimism as a perspective on life that can draw sustenance, rather than recoil, from the resignation. Nietzsche maintained that a new ground for activity could be found apart from the narratives of reason & progress. Dionysian pessimism is an answer to those who characterize Nietzsche's philosophy, & pessimism more generally, as passive or suicidal modes of thought. 54 References. Adapted from the source document.

Taking Lauran Berlant's "cruel optimism" as exemplary of recent attempts to integrate psychoanalysis and ideology critique, this essay focuses on the psychological paradigm underlying such an evocative phrase in order to demonstrate that even the most capacious interpretations of psychosocial experience are only ever as radical as their metapsychological foundations. As such, while Berlant's defense of people's bad attachments may seem compassionate compared to intellectuals who "shit" on dreams, a deeper analysis of cruel optimism's metapsychology reveals that this compassion is obtained through the inadvertent dismissal of psychosexuality.

Cover -- A Philosophy of Pessimism -- Imprint Page -- Contents -- Preface -- One: The Glass is Always Half-full? Countering the Optimists -- Two: The 'Doomsday Clock' is Always with Us: Pessimism in History -- Three: Optimists v. Pessimists: Economics and Politics -- Four: I Think, Therefore I Expect the Worst: Pessimism in Philosophy -- Five: A World Without Meaning: Pessimism in Literary Fiction -- Six: Visions of Despair: Pessimism in the Arts -- Seven: The Benefits of a Half-empty Glass: Pessimism as a Lifestyle -- References -- Bibliography -- Acknowledgements -- Index.