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One Way and Another: New and Selected Essays
One Way and Another is an affirmation of Adam Phillips's position as one of the most literary essayists today. With an introduction by John Banville. Throughout his brilliant career, Adam Phillips has lent a new and incisive dimension to the art of the literary essay, and in so doing revived the form for audiences of the new millennium. Collected here are nineteen pieces that have best defined his thinking - including 'On Tickling', 'On Being Bored' and ' A Case History' - along with a selection of new writings and an introduction by Man Booker Prize winner John Banville.'Though his territory is complication, he reports back from his travels in the simplest of words. He is perhaps single-handedly continuing the tradition of the world's best essayists' Observer'Phillips radiates infectious charm. The brew of gaiety, compassion, exuberance and idealism is heady and disarming' Sunday Times'"Phillipsian" would evoke a vivid, paradoxical style that led you to think that you had picked up an idea by the head, only to find you were holding it by the tail' Lisa Appignanesi, GuardianAdam Phillips is a psychoanalyst and a visiting professor in the English department at the University of York. He is the author of several previous books, all widely acclaimed, including On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored, Going Sane and Side Effects. His most recent books are On Kindness, co-written with the historian Barbara Taylor, Missing In Praise of the Unlived Life and On Balance.
416 pages, Paperback
First published November 28, 2013
28 people are currently reading
297 people want to read
About the author
Adam Phillips
124 books656 followersAdam Phillips is a British psychotherapist and essayist.
Since 2003 he has been the general editor of the new Penguin Modern Classics translations of Sigmund Freud. He is also a regular contributor to the London Review of Books.
Phillips was born in Cardiff, Wales in 1954, the child of second-generation Polish Jews. He grew up as part of an extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins and describes his parents as "very consciously Jewish but not believing". As a child, his first interest was the study of tropical birds and it was not until adolescence that he developed an interest in literature. He went on to study English at St John's College, Oxford, graduating with a third class degree. His defining influences are literary – he was inspired to become a psychoanalyst after reading Carl Jung's autobiography and he has always believed psychoanalysis to be closer to poetry than medicine.
Adapted from Wikipedia.
Phillips is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books. He has been described by The Times as "the Martin Amis of British psychoanalysis" for his "brilliantly amusing and often profoundly unsettling" work; and by John Banville as "one of the finest prose stylists in the language, an Emerson of our time."
Since 2003 he has been the general editor of the new Penguin Modern Classics translations of Sigmund Freud. He is also a regular contributor to the London Review of Books.
Phillips was born in Cardiff, Wales in 1954, the child of second-generation Polish Jews. He grew up as part of an extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins and describes his parents as "very consciously Jewish but not believing". As a child, his first interest was the study of tropical birds and it was not until adolescence that he developed an interest in literature. He went on to study English at St John's College, Oxford, graduating with a third class degree. His defining influences are literary – he was inspired to become a psychoanalyst after reading Carl Jung's autobiography and he has always believed psychoanalysis to be closer to poetry than medicine.
Adapted from Wikipedia.
Phillips is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books. He has been described by The Times as "the Martin Amis of British psychoanalysis" for his "brilliantly amusing and often profoundly unsettling" work; and by John Banville as "one of the finest prose stylists in the language, an Emerson of our time."
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 24, 2014
This is a fascinating collection of essays reflecting Phillips work over the last twenty years. It is interesting to see how certain themes (and occasionally certain quotes) recur and are sometimes taken up in different ways. There are a lot of essays and since they are slightly addictive, it is tempting to read the lot quite quickly in the way a chocoholic might get carried away with a box of chocolates. More sensible, of course, would be to take one's times and read a few essays interspersed with other reading over a longer period of time. It would be fascinating to see how people rated the different essays - the two that stand out for me are Punishing Parents and Narcissism for and against. I think I probably enjoyed every essay but those were the two that struck me most forcefully. I certainly plan to come back to this book from time to time.
February 4, 2017
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Acclaimed author and psychoanalyst Adam Phillips has written a marvelous book and one that could not have been discovered by me at a more opportune time. It comes to me as comfortingly rewarding to have several personal beliefs confirmed in light of unsettling developments seeming to permeate my life these days. The many pertinent essays selected as his best acknowledge for once what has weighed on my mind for so many years now. To name just a few certain selected subjects that Phillips wrote digressive essays about example compromise, boredom, obstacles, parenting, desire, and frustration. Though the work is scientific and based on clinical experience, Phillips manages to make each essay interesting and in the vein of what Johnson’s Dictionary definition of an essay describes as being a loose sally of the mind. However dense any particular Phillips essay is it still manages to offer enrichment and understanding typically absent from most psychology generally encountered. Though the book is more likely suited to lives of already long accomplishment (read this as old people), there are kernels scattered within that certainly contain enrichment and some momentary sense of pleasure and satisfaction for anyone seeking a specific answer, suggestion, or confirmation concerning a wide range of topics. Again, comforting is the word I most associate regarding this book, even in light of its unsettling truths about our defects connected with being human.
…The one suffering no one can avoid, and everyone needs to be able to suffer, though they can try to hold themselves back from it, is frustration…Frustration makes us work—it gets us to work and it gives us work to do—but we are not always sure which is the work worth doing. And many of our so-called satisfactions do not appease, or even touch, the frustration we feel.___Adam Phillips from Punishing Parents
Acclaimed author and psychoanalyst Adam Phillips has written a marvelous book and one that could not have been discovered by me at a more opportune time. It comes to me as comfortingly rewarding to have several personal beliefs confirmed in light of unsettling developments seeming to permeate my life these days. The many pertinent essays selected as his best acknowledge for once what has weighed on my mind for so many years now. To name just a few certain selected subjects that Phillips wrote digressive essays about example compromise, boredom, obstacles, parenting, desire, and frustration. Though the work is scientific and based on clinical experience, Phillips manages to make each essay interesting and in the vein of what Johnson’s Dictionary definition of an essay describes as being a loose sally of the mind. However dense any particular Phillips essay is it still manages to offer enrichment and understanding typically absent from most psychology generally encountered. Though the book is more likely suited to lives of already long accomplishment (read this as old people), there are kernels scattered within that certainly contain enrichment and some momentary sense of pleasure and satisfaction for anyone seeking a specific answer, suggestion, or confirmation concerning a wide range of topics. Again, comforting is the word I most associate regarding this book, even in light of its unsettling truths about our defects connected with being human.
…The one suffering no one can avoid, and everyone needs to be able to suffer, though they can try to hold themselves back from it, is frustration…Frustration makes us work—it gets us to work and it gives us work to do—but we are not always sure which is the work worth doing. And many of our so-called satisfactions do not appease, or even touch, the frustration we feel.___Adam Phillips from Punishing Parents
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews