Terrors and Experts

by Adam Phillips

Book Overview

Iris Murdoch once suggested that to understand any philosopher's work we must ask what he or she is frightened of. To understand any psychoanalyst's work--both as a clinician and as a writer--we should ask what he or she loves, because psychoanalysis is about the unacceptable and about love, two things that we may prefer to keep apart, but that Freud found to be inextricable. If it is possible to talk about psychoanalysis as a scandal, without...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674874803
• ISBN13: 9780674874800
• Release Date: April 1997
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 132 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book

Especially if you are one of those people who is disillousioned with much of psychoanalysis, Phillips has an incredible way of presenting paradox, and thinking about symptoms and psychologists in new and interesting ways. A must if you're a psychologist, and a double must if you're in grad school. The only thing negative I can say about Phillips is that his writing style can start to repeat after a while so its best not to read two Phillips books back to back.

Psychoanalysis as Subject and Object

"People come for psychoanalysis - or choose someone to have a conversation with - when they feel they can no longer keep a secret." In this slim and satisfying book, Phillips distills his not inconsiderable devotion to psychoanalysis into six thoughtful essays. Phillips seems to have read everything; he thinks deeply, and has an astonishing ability to synthesize. His assertions challenge the reader, and he supports them with evidence. His essays read like easy, intelligent musings, but he has slyly assembled his facts. Some of his sources are Lacan, Winnicott, Freud, Ferenczi, Franz Kafka, Khan, Descartes - among many others. He's an original, a clinician as well as a theoretician, and has a compassionate heart as well as a great mind.