On Balance
Adam Phillips
  • Published: 12 September 2011
  • ISBN: 9780241143896
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $32.99

On Balance

Formats & editions
EBook
27 Sep 2010
Paperback
12 Sep 2011
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'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.
  • Published: 12 September 2011
  • ISBN: 9780241143896
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $32.99
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Praise for On Balance

Phillips is a wonderful writer, his prose limpid and exact, and this is a deep and stimulating book

Sunday Times

Intriguing and radical questions about the vital information strong responses and desires provide, and how we might use this to identify what we want

Guardian

His writing is a lively source of provocation, repetition, self-renewal.

Scotsman

The best living essayist writing in English

John Gray

Reading Phillips, you may be amused, vexed, dazzled. But the one thing you will never be is bored

Observer

He's brilliant

John Carey

Phillips radiates infectious charm

Sunday Times