Terrors and Experts (Paperback)

Adam Phillips

ISBN 10: 0571175848 / ISBN 13: 9780571175840

Published by Faber & Faber, London, 1997

About this Item

Paperback. 'It is rare to find a practising psychoanalyst who is also ready to challenge, with great subtlety and no axe to grind, certain aspects of analytical orthodoxy . . . Phillips is one of the most intelligent and humane of psychoanalytic writers, and Terrors and Experts contains a great number of thought-provoking and sometimes brilliant ideas.' Alain de Botton, Sunday Telegraph'Phillips boldly goes where few analysts have gone before, delighting in the riddles of the psyche and dreaming of an analytic set-up which would ditch dubious expertise and invite a camaraderie based on sharing terrors.The brew of gaiety, compassion, exuberance and idealism is heady and disarming.' Roy Porter, Sunday Times A discussion of ways in which we may be terrorized by experts, and of the idea of expertise itself. The author challenges the conventional idea of the "self" as something to be known, and sets out to show how self-knowledge is the problem rather than the solution. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780571175840

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Terrors and Experts (Paperback)
• Publisher: Faber & Faber, London
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571175848
• ISBN 13: 9780571175840
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

In the style of his earlier books, On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored and On Flirtation, the author discusses ways in which we may be terrorized by experts, and the idea of expertise itself. He challenges the conventional idea of the self as something to be known, and sets out to show how self-knowledge is the problem rather than the solution. By examining our wish to believe things - and people (including psychoanalysts) - the book offers a revision of psychoanalysis itself. For to take psychoanalysis seriously, Phillips suggests, is to be unable to take gurus seriously.

Review

What is psychoanalysis good for? The British essayist and psychotherapist Adam Phillips believes it's good for creating the sense that everyday life is worth approaching with wonder. In Terrors and Experts, Phillips redefines the terms in which many people discuss--and dismiss--psychoanalysis. He does this by examining it as a social practice, not a science, and criticizes analysts that believe that if they and their patients simply find things out, all their patients' problems will go away. Says Phillips, "When a doctor tries to solve every problem, rather than help his patient tolerate the terrifying uncertainties of introspection, he becomes an expert on human possibility, something no one could ever be, despite the posturing of our own favorite authorities."