Adam Phillips

From acclaimed psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, this is a meditation on what we must give up to feel more alive. To give up or not to give up? The question can feel inescapable, but the answer is never simple. Giving up our supposed vices is one thing; giving up on life itself is quite another. One form of self-sacrifice feels positive,...

From the UK’s foremost literary psychoanalyst, a dazzling companion to On Wanting to Change that asks what it means to get better. To talk about getting better—about wanting to change in ways that we might choose and prefer—is to talk about pursuing the life we want; in the full knowledge that our pictures of the life we want, of our...

From one of the world’s foremost authorities on Sigmund Freud comes a strikingly original biography of the father of psychoanalysis. Becoming Freud is the story of the young Freud—Freud up until the age of fifty—that incorporates all of Freud’s many misgivings about the art of biography. Freud invented a psychological treatment that involved the telling and revising of life stories,...

A powerful exploration of the human capacity for renewal, as seen through Shakespeare and Freud "A compellingly readable and intelligent book. . . . Both authors write with impressive energy."—Rowan Williams, New Statesman In this fresh investigation, Stephen Greenblatt and Adam Phillips explore how the second chance has been an essential feature of the literary imagination and a promise so...

In a virtuoso collection of essays, Adam Phillips sets out to make and break the links between psychoanalysis and literature. Promises, Promises explores the rich terrain where these two fields intersect, providing insights into both the promises and pitfalls that accompany such an endeavour. Phillips's work delves deep into the ways that psychoanalytic thinking can illuminate literary texts and how...

From acclaimed psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, a meditation on how to achieve the lives we want. Where do we get ideas about the lives we want? And what do we do — and fail to do — about actually getting them? In The Life You Want, Adam Phillips uses psychoanalytic and literary approaches to show that we are obsessed with the...

An exploration of the role of the handbag in the history of culture, fashion, and material production The history of the handbag—its design, how it has been made, used, and worn—reveals something essential about women's lives over the past 500 years. Perhaps the most universal item of fashionable adornment, it can also be elusive, an object of desire, secrecy, and...

A powerful exploration of the human capacity for renewal, as seen through Shakespeare and Freud. "A compellingly readable and intelligent book... Both authors write with impressive energy."—Rowan Williams, New Statesman In this fresh investigation, Stephen Greenblatt and Adam Phillips explore how the second chance has been an essential feature of the literary imagination and a promise so central to our...

From the UK's foremost literary psychoanalyst, a dazzling new book on the universal urge to change our lives. We live in a world in which we are invited to change - to become our best selves, through politics, or fitness, or diet, or therapy. We change all the time - growing older and older - and how we think about...

From acclaimed psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, a meditation on what we must give up to feel more alive. To give up or not to give up? The question can feel inescapable, but the answer is never simple. Giving up our supposed vices is one thing; giving up on life itself is quite another. One form of self-sacrifice feels positive, something to...

Britain's pre-eminent psychoanalyst explores the relationship between writing and psychoanalysis - a fascinating and highly unusual series of literary essays. For Adam Phillips - as for Freud and many of his followers - poetry and poets have always held an essential place, as both precursors and unofficial collaborators in the psychoanalytic project. But the same has never held true in...