On the Management of Doubt (K managementu pochybnosti) and Concurrent Hopes (Souběžné naděje) both focus on techniques of self-management and coaching that often resonated with my studying methods while I was at university. I decided to explore further what theories these methods are based on, as well as testing whether I am capable of considering my desire for professional self-realisation from a critical perspective, or rather, to distinguish who these desires belong to.
Concurrent Hopes / Souběžné naděje
2015
Concurrent Hopes is a short video, combining video-performance and a documentary approach, inspired by Authentic Happiness, a book by Martin Seligman, founder of the field of positive psychology. The aim of positive psychology is to shift the focus of the field from “removing problems” to “strengthening qualities” of the human psyche that lead to a “good life”. Seligman often refers to Aristoteles’ eudaimonia, but most of his arguments for “attaining happiness” are – in contrast to Aristotle – entirely instrumental. During the semester, I tried to examine how this book, which also works as a self-help guide, works with the reader. I focused in more detail on a chapter titled Optimism About the Future, where the seemingly ideal marriage of psychological and economical discourse within the logic of self-help collides and psychology finds it does not have the upper hand.
On The Management of Doubt / K managementu pochybnosti
2014
The video is a short essayistic documentary that draws on research into mind management and coaching methods. As a university student, I voluntarily chose to undergo coaching in order to better understand how my desire and subjectivity can be produced through directed motivation, and also to discover how I can cope with this production of desire.The voice-over is a collage of lyrical narration of my own experiences with coaching, descriptions of coaching methods, and a short extract from Abraham Maslow’s book Eupsychian Management (1965), which presents a utopian vision of a society composed entirely of self-realising individuals. ideo is a short essayistic documentary that draws on research into mind management and coaching methods. As a university student, I voluntarily chose to undergo coaching in order to better understand how my desire and subjectivity can be produced through directed motivation, and also to discover how I can cope with this production of desire. The voice-over is a collage of lyrical narration of my own experiences with coaching, descriptions of coaching methods, and a short extract from Abraham Maslow’s book Eupsychian Management (1965), which presents a utopian vision of a society composed entirely of self-realising individuals.