Description
Book SynopsisSo much has been written about forbidden pleasures. What about pleasures that are unforbidden?
Society is fascinated by taboo - we spend our lives chasing illicit pleasures - but nobody pays much attention to all the unforbidden pleasures freely available to us every day. Could we be gaining just as much reward from these unnoticed, unforbidden indulgences as from the much-glorified forbidden - or even more?
Starting with Oscar Wilde, Adam Phillips elegantly unfolds all the meanings and significances of the Unforbidden, from Genesis to Freud and his 20th century colleagues. Unforbidden Pleasures explores the philosophical, psychological and social complexities that govern human desire and shape our reality.
Trade ReviewThe most interestingly subversive meditation on modern life I have read for many years... Phillips ranges over a wide field, including reflections on
Hamlet and the tyrannical power of conscience. Elegant, forceful and rich in insight, this is
a book that can be read again and again * New Statesman - Books of the Year 2015 *
The best living essayist writing in English
[A] playfully digressive style... He is the finest living decipherer of affective life [and]
the Bob Dylan of psychoanalysis * Daily Telegraph *
There is a lot of philosophy and psychoanalysis packed into these 200 pages * Radar *
Adam Phillips is
single-handedly continuing the tradition of the world's best essayists * Observer *
He's brilliant
Phillips radiates infectious charm * Sunday Times *
Publisher's description. Adam Phillips elegantly unfolds the concept of the 'unforbidden', from the Old Testament to Freud and beyond, exploring the philosophical, psychological and social complexities that govern human desire and shape our reality. * Penguin *
