On Balance

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? This title explores a variety of urgent concerns related to how we attempt to manage our conflicting desires, needs and motives. It provides arguments, wordplay and more. From the author of Missing Out and On Kindness, Britain's pre-eminent psychoanalyst explores our relationship with balance.'Reading Phillips, you may be amused, vexed, dazzled. But the one thing you will never be is bored' ObserverIn this absorbing and provocative new book from one of Britain's most elegant and original prose stylists, psychoanalyst Adam Phillips addresses a variety of urgent concerns - many centred around the idea of balance.When might we know that enough is enough? Does the road of excess ever lead to the palace of wisdom? What is the role of the parent, the teacher and of psychoanalysis itself in the development of children's minds? Should we be happy, or is there something better we can be? And what can we learn from the tales of Jack and the Beanstalk or Cinderella?With his trademark combination of open-minded enquiry and exhilarating argument, drawing primarily on the twin worlds of literature and psychoanalysis, Adam Phillips will delight readers old and new in this much anticipated new book.