Opening chapter Well-Being and Creative Careers: Out Now
My publisher Intellect Books has just made the opening chapter of my forthcoming (September 2025) book Well-Being and Creative Careers available for (free) download.
Its not long now, until my book Well-Being and Creative Careers: What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick, comes out (with Intellect)... And today, my publisher has made the opening chapter and preface (link to PDF) available for open access download.
Here I would like to share some key segments and statements from that outline, to illustrate the project and the point I hope to make:
“What makes people happy doing what they love is also what becomes a problem for them.”
“While awareness about the importance of health and well-being in the workplace is rising worldwide, a characteristic aspect of the creative career is that practitioners so embody their labor, identify with their craft, and, in a way, ‘become’ their work. This is why it can be exceptionally difficult to relate effectively to potentially problematic aspects of the industry.”
“The overview [of data and research on various media professions] cannot escape the conclusion that the very industry that people choose to be part of is what makes them sick.”
“Industry lore and vocational awe conspire to make the creative career escape meaningful critique, and this turns any problems people may have into personal and private ones.”
“Despite being paid poorly, treated unfairly, and having little or no control over one’s future, so many artists, creators, writers, actors, programmers, and developers still insist that what they do for a living is not really ‘work’ at all.”
“The book ends with celebrating the life-affirming and transformative power of love that people feel for their work and for turning their creativity into a career in the media. Perhaps love is the most radical of all the positions I consider and explore throughout this project.”