Promises, Promises: Essays on Psychoanalysis and Literature

by Adam Phillips

As an essayist, Adam Phillips combines the best of two a mastery of psychotherapy as both practitioner and theorist, and a reputation as one of the best literary writers around. In this collection of essays, he brings these two gifts to bear upon each other, speculating on the relative merits of psychoanalysis and literature and on the connections between them. In his quirky, epigrammatic style, Phillips shows us how psychoanalysis and literature at their best share the goal of shedding light on human character, the most fascinating of disorders. Promises, Promises reveals Phillips as a virtuoso performer able to reach far beyond the borders of psychoanalytic discourse, into art, novels, poetry, and history. This collection gives us insights into Martin Amis's Night Train, Nijinsky's diary, Tom Stoppard and A. E. Housman, Amy Clampitt, the effect of the Blitz on Londoners, and a case history of clutter. It confirms Phillips as a writer whose work, in the words of the Guardian, "hovers in a strange and haunting borderland between rigour and delight."

Genres: Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Nonfiction, Essays, Philosophy, Literature, Criticism

396 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 1972

About the author

Adam Phillips is a British psychotherapist and essayist.

Since 2003 he has been the general editor of the new Penguin Modern Classics translations of Sigmund Freud. He is also a regular contributor to the London Review of Books.

Phillips was born in Cardiff, Wales in 1954, the child of second-generation Polish Jews. He grew up as part of an extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins and describes his parents as "very consciously Jewish but not believing". As a child, his first interest was the study of tropical birds and it was not until adolescence that he developed an interest in literature. He went on to study English at St John's College, Oxford, graduating with a third class degree. His defining influences are literary – he was inspired to become a psychoanalyst after reading Carl Jung's autobiography and he has always believed psychoanalysis to be closer to poetry than medicine.

Adapted from Wikipedia.

Phillips is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books. He has been described by The Times as "the Martin Amis of British psychoanalysis" for his "brilliantly amusing and often profoundly unsettling" work; and by John Banville as "one of the finest prose stylists in the language, an Emerson of our time."

Reviews

[Sinem A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tam konuya girmişti ki kitap bitti :( Psikanaliz ve edebiyat ilişkisi üzerine bir kitap olduğunu düşünmüştüm ama konu ayrı ayrı ele alınmış. Yazarın bazı kitaplar vs üzerine yazılarından oluşuyor. Bu yazılar arasında bir bağlantı yok ve daha çok psikanaliz üzerine yazılar. Çok detay konu ve yazılardan yola çıkar çok detaylardan bahsediyor pek çıkarsama yapmama da izin vermiyor bu nedenle.
Sadece ilk ve son bir kaç makalesini beğendim, psikanaliz ve edebiyat ilişkisine değindiği için. İki yıldız da bu makaleler için geldi.
Belki ben ıskaladım ama bu edebiyat-psikanaliz ilişkisi konusunda çok daha iyi kitaplar vardır diye düşünüyorum. Ben bilmiyorum ama bir yerde bence keşfedilmeyi bekliyorlar

[Claire · Rating 1 out of 5]

Phillips is often cited in other books on the human psyche. The chapter headings were intriguing and promised enlightenment within a hybrid of literary criticism blending with his psychoanalytic experience. Alas, i found it dense, obfuscating, a dull academic book perhaps, but presented as general reading. It was a disappointment and more than that. I was impatient and gave up halfway through.

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Psychoanalysis is weird, man. And not in the good way. LOL

I really enjoy the essays in this collection that are reviews of books; there's one that reviews a book written by a disciple of Freud who took psychoanalysis to disturbingly misogynistic places, places that disturbed Freud and the other practitioners of this burgeoning field. There's also another really interesting essay that looks at anorexia through the lens of Bartleby's "I would prefer not to."

I'm glad I read this collection because I was superficially familiar with psychoanalytic concepts but not how they'd morphed over the last hundred years in practice. I think I'll just reiterate--weird, man.

[Sebnem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edebiyat aracılığıyla psikanaliz ya da psikanaliz aracılığıyla edebiyat üzerine düşünen bir kitap değil bu; zaman zaman her ikisini birden yapan, bunu yaparken (psik)analisti sorgulamayı da ihmal etmeyen bir kitap bu - ve bence bu haliyle çok iyi.