`cruelpessimism` Related Article Results

Cruel Optimism is a theoretical framework developed by American scholar Lauren Berlant and systematically examined in her 2011 work Cruel Optimism. The concept describes how individuals’ attachments to promising goals such as a good life, happiness, stability, or success can, under specific historical and social conditions, simultaneously limit their well-being and development. According to Berlant, optimism becomes cruel when the attachment to a desired object or fantasy persists even though th