On Depression and the Creative Life as Project

This chapter explores the creative processes of writing and taking photographs as therapeutic interventions that alleviate depression. It also considers depression as a cultural rather than a psychological phenomenon on its own. It examines capitalist realism and the governmentality of the Singaporean state as examples of the disciplinary forces of modern societies that are imposed on the individual and argues that creative practices amount to an autotelic life project facilitating the emergence of personal meaning and values.