Overview

'Wise, witty and playful essays, taking in the nature of fundamentalism, excess, authenticity and much more' John Gray, Prospect Are we too obsessed with excess? What can childhood teach us about bad behaviour? And should we be happy, or is there something better we might be? In On Balance, acclaimed psychoanalyst Adam Phillips explores a variety of urgent concerns related to how we attempt to manage our conflicting desires, needs and motives. In essays on excess, childhood development, fairy tales and the pursuit of happiness, Phillips provides exhilarating arguments, witty wordplay and much intellectual and emotional food for thought on literature and life.

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9780241143896

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Reviews

A refreshing, invigorating experience...Adam Phillips is one of the richest and most rewarding essayists of our time. -- Los Angeles Times<br><br> Highly pragmatic...Phillips's authority as a writer comes in no small part from his own experience as a highly regarded therapist....Like a priest, he is concerned with damnation and salvation, under the secular names of sickness and cure. --Adam Kirsch, The Boston Globe<br><br> Transformative...Phillips can tease out contradictions with extraordinary delicacy....He shows that pleasure and desire are not simple; they can be feared...and used to hide things we should really see. -- The Guardian (London) <p><p> Gently provocative reading on themes of need and desire...Phillips's ideas are fresh and inventive, casting new light on counterintuitive topics from the psychological importance of punishment to the questionable pursuit of happiness. -- Financial Times <br><br> A set of beguiling essays...the author provides polished ponderables for all readers. -- Kirkus Reviews <p><p><br><br>

A refreshing, invigorating experience...Adam Phillips is one of the richest and most rewarding essayists of our time. -- Los Angeles Times Highly pragmatic...Phillips's authority as a writer comes in no small part from his own experience as a highly regarded therapist....Like a priest, he is concerned with damnation and salvation, under the secular names of sickness and cure. --Adam Kirsch, The Boston Globe Transformative...Phillips can tease out contradictions with extraordinary delicacy....He shows that pleasure and desire are not simple; they can be feared...and used to hide things we should really see. -- The Guardian (London) Gently provocative reading on themes of need and desire...Phillips's ideas are fresh and inventive, casting new light on counterintuitive topics from the psychological importance of punishment to the questionable pursuit of happiness. -- Financial Times A set of beguiling essays...the author provides polished ponderables for all readers. -- Kirkus Reviews

Author Information

Adam Phillips, formerly Principal Child Psychotherapist at Charing Cross Hospital, London, is a practising psychoanalyst and a visiting professor in the English department at the University of York. He is the author of numerous works of psychoanalysis and literary criticism, including most recently On Wanting to Change, Attention Seeking, In Writing, Unforbidden Pleasures and Missing Out. He is General Editor of the Penguin Modern Classics Freud translations, and a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature.

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