The Cynical Therapeutic: Self-Concern Gone Awry

This book offers a philosophical and cultural critique of modern cynicism as an ideological approach to nihilism, rather than a mere attitude of skepticism or pessimism. Tracing cynicism from its ancient origins through Sigmund Freud, Ernest Becker, Søren Kierkegaard, and contemporary therapeutic culture, the book argues that modern cynicism functions as what Peter Sloterdijk calls an “enlightened false consciousness”: a posture that claims freedom, significance, meaning, and self-mastery w...