ABSTRACT
The main focus of this anthology is the question of how the incessant optimisation of performance and efficiency, the pursuit of self-improvement and the ubiquitous multi-tasking phenomenon affect not only relationships with others, but also the way individuals relate to their bodies and their own selves. The internationally renowned scholars contributing to the volume discuss the impacts of optimisation on culture and the psyche from a variety of perspectives: sociological, economic, philosophical, psychological and psychoanalytic. The chapter features a variety of transdisciplinary links and differ with regard to their theoretical or conceptual frameworks and the empirical material and the topics they examine. As such, they cast an impressive light on the many facets and pitfalls of an optimisation dynamic that is all but irreversible in cultural terms, has a high degree of impact at the individual level and teems with practical consequences. This dynamic is indeed able to produceinnovations and corresponding output boosts in individual sectors.
