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Houdini's Box: The Art of Escape
In this uniquely brilliant and insightful book, an acclaimed essayist and psychoanalyst analyzes four escape artists—including Harry Houdini and Emily Dickinson—to meditate on the notion of escape in our society and in ourselves.
"Provocative ... lucid and engaging ... a pleasure to read." — The Washington Post
No one can escape the desire and need to escape. By analyzing four examples of escape artists—a young girl who hides from others by closing her eyes; a grown man incapable of a relationship; Emily Dickinson, recluse extraordinaire; and Harry Houdini, the quintessential master of escape—Phillips enables readers to identify the escape artists lurking within themselves. Lucid, erudite, and audacious, Houdini's Box is another scintillating and seminal work by one of the world's most dazzlingly original thinkers.
"Provocative ... lucid and engaging ... a pleasure to read." — The Washington Post
No one can escape the desire and need to escape. By analyzing four examples of escape artists—a young girl who hides from others by closing her eyes; a grown man incapable of a relationship; Emily Dickinson, recluse extraordinaire; and Harry Houdini, the quintessential master of escape—Phillips enables readers to identify the escape artists lurking within themselves. Lucid, erudite, and audacious, Houdini's Box is another scintillating and seminal work by one of the world's most dazzlingly original thinkers.
192 pages, Paperback
First published July 24, 2001
10 people are currently reading
177 people want to read
About the author
Adam Phillips
124 books674 followersAdam 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."
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."
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 21, 2017
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…Real magic is the illusion that there is such a thing as real magic…
Years ago Houdini became for me more than just a famous magician and escape artist. I felt I knew him. Back in grade school my mother provided me a book allowance so that monthly I could order a few dollars worth of titles off a scholastic list our teacher provided. I remember ordering a book about Harry Houdini, eagerly awaiting its arrival, and after reading it being in awe of his story. I could not believe all the trouble Houdini made for himself. There was also a Paramount Pictures film made the year I was born in 1953 about the life of Houdini that starred Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. I loved that movie. And my blood rushed within every dangerous obstacle and subsequent escape Houdini ever made. Reading Houdini’s Box has now taken me back to that time as a young boy and also forced another look into what originally impressed me so about this man. Of course, it isn’t really Houdini I am looking for. In fact, it is my very own mirror I am gazing into.
…To boast is to shout down claims of one’s inferiority, the vanishing act in which one’s shame disappears…
For years I made efforts to overcome my fears. Whether it was learning to stand up to bullies or embarking on long-distance excursions in order to prove how adventurous and brave I was, I continued to fail at convincing even myself. My list of sallies is long and could be construed as winsome. I was lucky to survive them. Even after more than six decades fear, in its many guises, continues to threaten me and I reluctantly face it willingly with the confidence to succeed in light of its many dangers.
…The sheer scale of fear between people—the terrors and uncertainties people can generate in each other—make a life of exits and more occasional entrances a virtual necessity. A person who is running away from something, the psychoanalyst Michael Balint once remarked, is also running towards something else…Things are not frightening because they are real, they are real because they are frightening.
Surprised at the age of thirty-two to learn from a substance abuse center that I was an alcoholic, and immediately carrying through on the center’s instruction, I attended the first of my initial one hundred contiguous AA meetings. After establishing a base of sobriety I branched out into paid therapy sessions beginning with a respected past member of the clergy who had gone into private practice. Dr. Tom Bumpus was my first terrible mistake in recovering from a disease that had affected me in ways that are still present at my current age of sixty-three. I believe it was my second session with this crackpot when he asked me what I thought my problem was. I remarked that it was this fear I had felt for so many years that was at the root of what ailed me. He called me a liar and informed me that all addicts are liars and I was no different. I was shocked that this so-called doctor would treat my most honest attempt at expressing the truth behind my disease with such disdain and ridicule. I walked out his door never to return. But Tom Bumpus scarred me and continues to haunt my good nature even thirty years later. Reading Adam Phillips immediately conjures up that doughy goofball and I remember how he made me feel so ashamed and doubtful of myself. Of course, because he was an authority figure, I questioned my truthfulness and attempted to place the blame on my failures directly on my own inability to perhaps be honest with myself. But thirty years of uninterrupted self-examination has provided me ample opportunities to prove and galvanize my belief in the power of that fear, and I remember still vividly the many times I have been forced to flee or overcome it by standing my ground and taking steps towards it. If asked the same question today I would answer that for good or bad, fear is the driving force behind me.
…the absence of desire and real death, of which the death of desire is a foreshadowing, are the two great hauntings…
This morning I am feeling old and unimportant. My wife is still in bed as she generally remains sleeping for another two hours after I initially rise to read and write in quiet. But I am bothered this morning by her oldness too. She is not the same young girl I met when we were seventeen. Though she remains desirable to me, and most likely will always interest me sexually, she could not possibly be as alluring to others these days as she used to be. Nor am I. Looking back on our life together I can see where her attractiveness played a most important role in my personal happiness. She being desired by a person not myself. And I am grateful that she stayed faithful to me. I was rarely jealous, and if I was it was of my own doing. Beverly was remarkable in the sense she could have been with just about anybody she wanted to, but instead chose me. But now it does not matter. She is no longer the young woman she used to be. Not only have I lost interest in our risking an infidelity, but she cares little about the sordid fantasy as well. It used to be what we did for fun. We were collaborators. And my reading Adam Phillips this morning led me back to a time I believe was seductively delicious. This morning he mentioned In Praise of Older Women: The Amorous Recollections of András Vajda and I remembered Beverly enjoying that book herself many years ago. And this morning I wonder what that book would mean to her now? The novel details a young man’s obsession with older women and his being with them sexually. Perhaps my young wife, even back then, was subconsciously dwelling in the possibility?
Adam Phillips posits that escape is about what it is we want. One can either escape into doubt about what one wants, or one can escape from doubt about what one wants. For example, a pervert knows exactly what he wants. And he will flee from the confusion and uncertainty about what he wants and whether, in fact, he wants anything.
The convinced are in flight from the experimental nature of wanting, from the fact that you can only find something else that you hadn’t known you wanted. The unsure are in flight from acting on inclination, from following the compass of their excitement. For the unsure there is always a safe haven of compromise, of world-weary wisdom about the impossibility of satisfaction, and the noble truth in disappointment: whereas the convinced live in a different kind of inner superiority, the belief that they really know what everyone really wants, but that they are the only ones with the courage, the recklessness, the moral strength, or the good fortune to be capable of the ultimate satisfactions that life has to offer.
The teacher Gordon Lish instructed us to be open and frank in order to entice, and as Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, to name my bird without a gun. It is a fact I continue to follow their advice. And trust their words ambiguously.
…Real magic is the illusion that there is such a thing as real magic…
Years ago Houdini became for me more than just a famous magician and escape artist. I felt I knew him. Back in grade school my mother provided me a book allowance so that monthly I could order a few dollars worth of titles off a scholastic list our teacher provided. I remember ordering a book about Harry Houdini, eagerly awaiting its arrival, and after reading it being in awe of his story. I could not believe all the trouble Houdini made for himself. There was also a Paramount Pictures film made the year I was born in 1953 about the life of Houdini that starred Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. I loved that movie. And my blood rushed within every dangerous obstacle and subsequent escape Houdini ever made. Reading Houdini’s Box has now taken me back to that time as a young boy and also forced another look into what originally impressed me so about this man. Of course, it isn’t really Houdini I am looking for. In fact, it is my very own mirror I am gazing into.
…To boast is to shout down claims of one’s inferiority, the vanishing act in which one’s shame disappears…
For years I made efforts to overcome my fears. Whether it was learning to stand up to bullies or embarking on long-distance excursions in order to prove how adventurous and brave I was, I continued to fail at convincing even myself. My list of sallies is long and could be construed as winsome. I was lucky to survive them. Even after more than six decades fear, in its many guises, continues to threaten me and I reluctantly face it willingly with the confidence to succeed in light of its many dangers.
…The sheer scale of fear between people—the terrors and uncertainties people can generate in each other—make a life of exits and more occasional entrances a virtual necessity. A person who is running away from something, the psychoanalyst Michael Balint once remarked, is also running towards something else…Things are not frightening because they are real, they are real because they are frightening.
Surprised at the age of thirty-two to learn from a substance abuse center that I was an alcoholic, and immediately carrying through on the center’s instruction, I attended the first of my initial one hundred contiguous AA meetings. After establishing a base of sobriety I branched out into paid therapy sessions beginning with a respected past member of the clergy who had gone into private practice. Dr. Tom Bumpus was my first terrible mistake in recovering from a disease that had affected me in ways that are still present at my current age of sixty-three. I believe it was my second session with this crackpot when he asked me what I thought my problem was. I remarked that it was this fear I had felt for so many years that was at the root of what ailed me. He called me a liar and informed me that all addicts are liars and I was no different. I was shocked that this so-called doctor would treat my most honest attempt at expressing the truth behind my disease with such disdain and ridicule. I walked out his door never to return. But Tom Bumpus scarred me and continues to haunt my good nature even thirty years later. Reading Adam Phillips immediately conjures up that doughy goofball and I remember how he made me feel so ashamed and doubtful of myself. Of course, because he was an authority figure, I questioned my truthfulness and attempted to place the blame on my failures directly on my own inability to perhaps be honest with myself. But thirty years of uninterrupted self-examination has provided me ample opportunities to prove and galvanize my belief in the power of that fear, and I remember still vividly the many times I have been forced to flee or overcome it by standing my ground and taking steps towards it. If asked the same question today I would answer that for good or bad, fear is the driving force behind me.
…the absence of desire and real death, of which the death of desire is a foreshadowing, are the two great hauntings…
This morning I am feeling old and unimportant. My wife is still in bed as she generally remains sleeping for another two hours after I initially rise to read and write in quiet. But I am bothered this morning by her oldness too. She is not the same young girl I met when we were seventeen. Though she remains desirable to me, and most likely will always interest me sexually, she could not possibly be as alluring to others these days as she used to be. Nor am I. Looking back on our life together I can see where her attractiveness played a most important role in my personal happiness. She being desired by a person not myself. And I am grateful that she stayed faithful to me. I was rarely jealous, and if I was it was of my own doing. Beverly was remarkable in the sense she could have been with just about anybody she wanted to, but instead chose me. But now it does not matter. She is no longer the young woman she used to be. Not only have I lost interest in our risking an infidelity, but she cares little about the sordid fantasy as well. It used to be what we did for fun. We were collaborators. And my reading Adam Phillips this morning led me back to a time I believe was seductively delicious. This morning he mentioned In Praise of Older Women: The Amorous Recollections of András Vajda and I remembered Beverly enjoying that book herself many years ago. And this morning I wonder what that book would mean to her now? The novel details a young man’s obsession with older women and his being with them sexually. Perhaps my young wife, even back then, was subconsciously dwelling in the possibility?
Adam Phillips posits that escape is about what it is we want. One can either escape into doubt about what one wants, or one can escape from doubt about what one wants. For example, a pervert knows exactly what he wants. And he will flee from the confusion and uncertainty about what he wants and whether, in fact, he wants anything.
The convinced are in flight from the experimental nature of wanting, from the fact that you can only find something else that you hadn’t known you wanted. The unsure are in flight from acting on inclination, from following the compass of their excitement. For the unsure there is always a safe haven of compromise, of world-weary wisdom about the impossibility of satisfaction, and the noble truth in disappointment: whereas the convinced live in a different kind of inner superiority, the belief that they really know what everyone really wants, but that they are the only ones with the courage, the recklessness, the moral strength, or the good fortune to be capable of the ultimate satisfactions that life has to offer.
The teacher Gordon Lish instructed us to be open and frank in order to entice, and as Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, to name my bird without a gun. It is a fact I continue to follow their advice. And trust their words ambiguously.
June 1, 2013
I spent the entire book hoping for a climactic dualism to the interwoven stories, Phillips' patient who is so insistent on his want to be in flight from a woman, and Houdini, who was constantly dispelling the limitations of others' wants by simultaneously mystifying and demystifying. In the last thirty pages, Phillips does not disappoint.
We all have a bit of Houdini in us, and also a bit of the patient as well. Phillips' central premise is that our humanity is defined by our ability to have a way out of things, as this gives us our human will - our ability to choose and to choose against, i.e. to escape from. It is via this ability to choose that we develop the power to discover our wants, and to encounter the paralyzingly conflict involved in those wants. In facing the difficulty of choosing between absolute wants, we split. Part of us is like Houdini: we deal with this choice by trying to be a God-killer, and show how the idolatry of wanting is based on empty and naive faith. When we recognize the finitude of our wants, we become "just human" skeptics, devoid of the concept of wanting outside what we know, i.e wonder and magic. Another part of us is like the patient, becoming narrowly focused on mystifying ourselves via our desires. We resign ourselves to rote pursuit of desires that we "cannot understand", but rather certainly are true.
I think much of certain times in my life when I felt I had no choice regarding my actions, and the sorts of extreme escapism that occupied the dense slivers of time between my constrained activities. Ultimately, in creating this duality, we can effectively eliminate the choice factor involved in escapism entirely, invalidating the purpose of escape in the first place. In an epilogue invoking Dickinson, Phillips describes, however admittedly simplistic, the notion of a life that involves courageous speculation, rather than a duality of constraint and escape. For Phillips' Dickinskn, escape always exists as a possibility, exercised or not, which provides her a life with the freedom of risk, to paraphrase Phillips, a life of intelligent danger. It is through exploring these possibilities, rather than trying to certify them or invalidate them, that we free ourselves from our constrained neurosis.
We all have a bit of Houdini in us, and also a bit of the patient as well. Phillips' central premise is that our humanity is defined by our ability to have a way out of things, as this gives us our human will - our ability to choose and to choose against, i.e. to escape from. It is via this ability to choose that we develop the power to discover our wants, and to encounter the paralyzingly conflict involved in those wants. In facing the difficulty of choosing between absolute wants, we split. Part of us is like Houdini: we deal with this choice by trying to be a God-killer, and show how the idolatry of wanting is based on empty and naive faith. When we recognize the finitude of our wants, we become "just human" skeptics, devoid of the concept of wanting outside what we know, i.e wonder and magic. Another part of us is like the patient, becoming narrowly focused on mystifying ourselves via our desires. We resign ourselves to rote pursuit of desires that we "cannot understand", but rather certainly are true.
I think much of certain times in my life when I felt I had no choice regarding my actions, and the sorts of extreme escapism that occupied the dense slivers of time between my constrained activities. Ultimately, in creating this duality, we can effectively eliminate the choice factor involved in escapism entirely, invalidating the purpose of escape in the first place. In an epilogue invoking Dickinson, Phillips describes, however admittedly simplistic, the notion of a life that involves courageous speculation, rather than a duality of constraint and escape. For Phillips' Dickinskn, escape always exists as a possibility, exercised or not, which provides her a life with the freedom of risk, to paraphrase Phillips, a life of intelligent danger. It is through exploring these possibilities, rather than trying to certify them or invalidate them, that we free ourselves from our constrained neurosis.
September 26, 2014
Almost from the first page I got excited by Houdini's Box. It promised to blow my mind with deep insights into escapsim: the psychological crutch that we all use. The language, Phillips' writing style was a little tricky, reminiscent of C.S.Lewis in its non linear nature, but so strong and thought provoking was the content that I was soon anticipating something very special.
The Art of Escape alternates between interpretative autobiographical chapters and warts and all recounts of the conversations the author had with a selection of his patients. While I can appreciate what Phillips was trying to do, I began to find this annoying, and struggled to follow where he was taking me as a reader. What exactly was he trying to say to me?. Among some very profound statements were also some very confusing ones. Perhaps, I need to read it again, but I didn't quite get it.
Bleak and humanistic, paradoxically dark and illuminating, I liked Houdini's Box: The Art of Escape and I recommend it if you like reading about human psychology, or even if you are just interested in Houdini who was evidently a very unique individual. I felt disappointed despite the peppering of sage nuggets, and the fascinating examination of the Harry Houdini.
The Art of Escape alternates between interpretative autobiographical chapters and warts and all recounts of the conversations the author had with a selection of his patients. While I can appreciate what Phillips was trying to do, I began to find this annoying, and struggled to follow where he was taking me as a reader. What exactly was he trying to say to me?. Among some very profound statements were also some very confusing ones. Perhaps, I need to read it again, but I didn't quite get it.
Bleak and humanistic, paradoxically dark and illuminating, I liked Houdini's Box: The Art of Escape and I recommend it if you like reading about human psychology, or even if you are just interested in Houdini who was evidently a very unique individual. I felt disappointed despite the peppering of sage nuggets, and the fascinating examination of the Harry Houdini.
February 27, 2012
This is a strange book about the theme of escape and includes quite a bit of philosophizing that did get a bit dreary at times. The first chapter is about a girl who never appears in the book again. The last chapter is about Emily Dickinson, who isn't in the book at all before. The uniting thread is Houdini and those chapters are very interesting. The other chapters are about the author's conversations with one of his patients--the author is or used to be a psychologist. It took me a while to figure out all the chapters were different conversations with the same man. Then he just quit therapy and those chapters ended.
I almost didn't finish this book, but I'm glad I did. It's a small book. I wouldn't have finished it if it was a long book, I do know that. There's more interesting content than boring and it is very different from most books I've read.
I almost didn't finish this book, but I'm glad I did. It's a small book. I wouldn't have finished it if it was a long book, I do know that. There's more interesting content than boring and it is very different from most books I've read.
October 7, 2008
unlike his book Going Sane, i found this one not fully formed, almost lost, that it was something about escape itself as desire, or something...
April 23, 2021
There are lots of Houdini connected books out there. This one examines the idea/mental construct of "escape." Phillips structures the book by knocking out a pretty standard chapter on Houdini's life and career, then follows each one with descriptions of patients who sought some sort of escape. Philipps includes his analysis of what each patients' challenge is and how Houdini illustrated the analysis.
This isn't as deeply analytical of Houdini as Meyer's "Houdini: A Mind in Chains," though he cites it, but only once. Phillips is much more enthralled by Silverman's biography and cites chunks of it throughout the book, with a poorly presented Bibliography and no Index.
Perhaps the boldest statement was that Houdini may have influenced the popularity of BDSM culture. Eh? Apparently Phillips doesn't know much about classic literature. He draws a parallel between Houdini's escapes and pornography, with Houdini and his audiences demanding increasing levels of danger and uniqueness. Meyer covers this much more convincingly.
Phillips did find the lone reference to Houdini in Finnegans Wake, though he fails to document the exact location. (Page 115 in my Kindle version of FW... "is escapemaster-inchief from all sorts of houdingplaces;")
This isn't as deeply analytical of Houdini as Meyer's "Houdini: A Mind in Chains," though he cites it, but only once. Phillips is much more enthralled by Silverman's biography and cites chunks of it throughout the book, with a poorly presented Bibliography and no Index.
Perhaps the boldest statement was that Houdini may have influenced the popularity of BDSM culture. Eh? Apparently Phillips doesn't know much about classic literature. He draws a parallel between Houdini's escapes and pornography, with Houdini and his audiences demanding increasing levels of danger and uniqueness. Meyer covers this much more convincingly.
Phillips did find the lone reference to Houdini in Finnegans Wake, though he fails to document the exact location. (Page 115 in my Kindle version of FW... "is escapemaster-inchief from all sorts of houdingplaces;")
June 5, 2017
Adam Phillips examines escape--its origins, its purposes, its results--in this succinct and relevant book. Through the context of Houdini's life, a compulsive user, and a famous poet recluse, we begin to see how escape can both confirm one's identity while moving away. Phillips illuminates desire as an act of realizing oneself.
Houdini's Box is a challenging read, like all psychoanalysis, but worth it for understand oneself better and to feel more comfortable in the inevitable and necessary act of escaping.
Houdini's Box is a challenging read, like all psychoanalysis, but worth it for understand oneself better and to feel more comfortable in the inevitable and necessary act of escaping.
April 4, 2021
A book about escape, topical when we have found ourselves confined to our homes, or to our towns. It explores escape as performance, like Houdini, as symptom, like the patients he describes and as the thing that motivates and defines us. He ends with an essay of the escape artist Emily Dickinson.
October 4, 2025
Phenomenal. V much recommend. Escaping from something means you’re escaping to something.
Consistent mind reel of back-and-forth; you’re always in the middle deciding, and you like your little extremes, knowingly or unknowingly, to guide you. Choice and risk are essential.
Consistent mind reel of back-and-forth; you’re always in the middle deciding, and you like your little extremes, knowingly or unknowingly, to guide you. Choice and risk are essential.
November 9, 2011
La caja de Houdini: Sobre el arte de la fuga (Anagrama) resulta ser un ensayo iluminador, en un sentido literario y también teórico —en el supuesto que la literatura sea más que pura teoría. Quiero decir: (el traductor de) Phillips se encarga de escribir correctamente. Puede citar a Ferenczi siendo absolutamente justo con el contexto, y también hilar una conversación con un paciente en su consulta de psicoanálisis sin simplemente transcribirla, sino que intercalando lo que él como médico va concatenando y diagnosticando en complicidad con el lector. Los casos clínicos que presenta parecen distintos, pero apuntan a una misma raíz que Phillips identifica con el ansia del escape, de la huída sin más: es decir, de la única forma de huir posible. El caso que se mantiene a lo largo de todo el volumen es el de un tipo que “desea en la huída”, por ponerle un nombre. Algo como desear escapar (desear el deseo y a la vez la huída), lo cual implica también el trabajo de cada vez conseguir de qué escapar, en este caso, las mujeres. Pero lo verdaderamente notable, es su acercamiento a la figura de Houdini, como paradigma no únicamente del arte escapista, sino como encarnación del Zeitgeist, pero no únicamente del inmigrante recién llegado a la Tierra de las Oportunidades, sino que como estereotipo social que esa misma sociedad construyó. Houdini escapaba de todas las formas que la sociedad yanqui tenía para vigilar y castigar: esposas, celdas, camisas de fuerza, e incluso inventaba nuevas formas de mortificar su propio cuerpo. No es el caso explicar cada lectura que hace Phillips se Houdini, puesto que él las hace a la perfección. Dan ganas de conocer más de cerca la máquina hermenéutica de Phillips, que parece calar tan hondo.
March 20, 2023
4 1/4 stars
September 3, 2015
I had great expectations when I bought this book. Houdini's Box: The Art of Escape, the title is so alluring, what's written on the jacket, too. After reading the book though, I found it a bit dull. The case studies the author mentions are overwhelmingly slow and cannot catch up with the parts affiliated with Houdini's story. The last chapter which is related to Emily Dickinson is briefly examined. I think if the author had separated the book into two parts: Houdini and Dickinson, it could have been much more welcoming.
July 9, 2008
I am a dork. "More Houdini, less psychoanalysis," I kept shouting at this book. Reading this also made me realize that I would be a horrible therapist, as I wanted to throttle the author's patient whenever he was being discussed. Lastly, having just read My Wars Are Laid Away in Booksthat epic Dickinson bio entitles me to declare the tacked-on epilogue as a glib cheap pop-psychology wash over her social and mental state.
August 30, 2014
This book is great for those who have never really dedicated a thought to escapism-- I'm in this audience. It was a neat perspective-shifting book that offered a psychologists view on a magician's form of escape and relating it with that of a therapy-seeking man's form(s) of escape. This is a very light read, and it doesn't say too much or propose any theories; however, it's a good read to introduce yourself to thoughts of escapism... as... you know.. an escape.
June 26, 2016
There are sine great meditations here, and provocative parallels drawn between Houdini, hide-and-go-seek, Emily Dickinson, and an avoidant patient who seems to live only when escaping what he ostensibly wants. It poses a lot of interesting questions (and for that it's a worthwhile read) even though as it ended it seemed to have left most if the puzzle pieces on the table, disconnected. I'll see whether the questions continue to resonate.
January 31, 2016
"If you are defined by what you can escape from ... you may need forever to seek out situations to release yourself from." This theme resonates throughout the book. The biography had many interesting ideas, including "The wish to run away is a sign of affinity" and "Imaginative life is almost exclusively about elsewhere." This was an engaging read!
Read
October 12, 2016'The convinced are in flight from the experimental nature of wanting, from the fact that you can only find out what you want by trying to get it, and in the process you may find something else that you didn’t know you wanted. The unsure are in flight from action on inclination, from following the compass of their excitement.'
August 31, 2009
Incoherent. Not worthy of the use of Houdini's name.
June 16, 2016
As always adam Phillip's is beautifully clever- his ideas and his thinking stir a desire in me - he never disappoints!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews