Equals - Softcover

Phillips, Adam

4.04 out of 5 stars

49 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571209750 ISBN 13: 9780571209750

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2017

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Written in his beloved epigrammatic and aphoristic style, Equals extends Adam Phillips's probings into the psychological and the political, bringing his trenchant wit to such subjects as the usefulness of inhibitions and the paradox of permissive authority. He explores why citizens in a democracy are so eager to establish levels of hierarchy when the system is based on the assumption that every man is created equal. And he ponders the importance of mockery in group behavior, and the psyche's struggle as a metaphor for political conflict.

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About the Author

Adam Phillips has been called "the closest thing we have to a philosopher of happiness." Formerly Principal Child Psychotherapist at Charing Cross Hospital in London, Phillips is the author of such works as Winnicott; On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored; Monogamy; On Flirtation; Terror and Experts; Darwin's Worms; Promises, Promises; and Houdini's Box.

From Publishers Weekly

Though Equals is psychoanalyst-essayist Adam Phillips's (On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored) attempt to branch out into political thinking, the best essays in the collection, many of which have been previously published, are the ones about Freud and his followers. Particular standouts include "Around and About Madness," in which Phillips argues that "madness like what we call pornography is that which we cannot remain indifferent to," and his reviews of John Lanchester's Mr Phillips ("that hitherto unthinkable, almost absurd thing, a great English Existential novel") and Ray Monk's biography of Bertrand Russell.
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