Editions

On Balance

  • Imprint: Penguin

  • ISBN: 9780241143896

  • Length: 336  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 20mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 234g

  • RRP: £12.99

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?

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.

  • Imprint: Penguin

  • ISBN: 9780241143896

  • Length: 336  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 20mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 234g

  • RRP: £12.99

Reviews

  • 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

  • Phillips radiates infectious charm

    Sunday Times

More from this Author

View all View all
View all View all

About the Author

Adam Phillips

Adam Phillips, formerly Principal Child Psychotherapist at Charing Cross Hospital, London, is a practising psychoanalyst and a visiting professor in the English department at the University of York. He is the author of numerous works of psychoanalysis and literary criticism, including most recently Attention Seeking, In Writing and Unforbidden Pleasures. He is General Editor of the Penguin Modern Classics Freud translations, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Adam Phillips

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience. For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.