Promises, Promises: Essays on Psychoanalysis and Literature , by Adam Phillips. Basic Books, 376 pages, $27.50.
Adam Phillips is an unusual man. Until recently, he was principal child psychotherapist at the Charing Cross Hospital in London. This is his eighth book on psychoanalysis. Most of them are collections of essays, published at the rate of Read More
At a recent dinner party, we inevitably got around to the sex-roles conundrum of the hour: Hillary Clinton and Rick Lazio’s in-your-face-off television debate. Was the criticism of Lazio’s aggressive move on Hillary sexist? (No one would have criticized him, Rick maintained, if he’d brandished the no-soft-money proposal at a man.) Or was it legit? Read More
Cassandra’s Daughter: A History of Psychoanalysis , by Joseph Schwartz. Viking, 339 pages, $28.95
One can imagine a popular history of psychoanalysis that would be both gripping and informative. But if it actually ranged in time from Freud’s early discoveries up to recent concerns about psychopharmacology, and if it thoroughly covered all the ground Read More
The Beast in the Nursery: On Curiosity and Other Appetites , by Adam Phillips. Pantheon Books, 192 pages, $21.
If Freud had written a book called The Beast in the Nursery , the beast would no doubt have been sex. Adam Phillips’ beast in the nursery is language or, to put it more broadly, Read More
