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Jonathan Lear has written an important book for our times, one that emerges from the recent pandemic with questions about how we might maintain, even strengthen, our capacities to be human and resilient when faced with potential catastrophe. And yet the book also appears to continue some of the major themes from Lear’s earlier book, Radical Hope (2006), suggesting that he has been considering for decades issues of maintaining one’s humanity amidst the pressures of personal and cultural upheaval.
As a philosopher and a psychoanalyst, Lear weaves an intriguing tapestry, involving threads from these fields. His writing style is very accessible, and the careful reader will find this
interweaving engrossing at times, while possibly daunting at others. For this reviewer, trained in psychoanalysis but not philosophy, it has been challenging to attempt to present a balanced view of all the interdigitating strands. Given the space allowed here, I have chosen to sketch the major themes as they appeared to me, along with some highlights from several chapters, admittedly leaving much of the rich detail for the interested reader to discover.
As the title suggests, three main themes stand out: Imagining the end, perhaps envisioning upcoming uncertainty or catastrophic change; Mourning, referring to not only acknowledging the losses, but also memorializing valued aspects of the lost object, thereby aiding the mourner’s return to internal balance and vitality; and Ethical life, referring to the capacities needed to sustain human happiness or to flourish. This might be what Aristotle terms “virtue”, and what some psychoanalysts might consider as the qualities supporting a balanced perspective, fostering compassion and respect for self and other.
Connecting these themes throughout the book is the concept of kalon, an ancient Greek term described as “a crucial node of human experience: connecting the social experience of being recognized with respect and admiration with the personal s