On Balance

"The curious thing about reading Phillips is that he makes you feel smart and above the daily grind at the same time as he reassures you that you are not alone in your primal anxieties about whether you are lovable or nuts or, perhaps, merely boring."—Daphne Merkin, The New York Times Magazine

"A refreshing, invigorating experience . . . Adam Phillips is one of the richest and most rewarding essayists of our time."—Los Angeles Times

"Highly pragmatic . . . Phillips's authority as it comes in no small part from his own experience as a highly regarded therapist . . . Like a priest, he is concerned with damnation and salvation, under the secular names of sickness and cure."—Adam Kirsche, The Boston Globe

"Gently provocative reading on themes of need and desire . . . Phillips's ideas are fresh and inventive, casting new light on counterintuitive topics from the psychological importance of punishment to the questionable pursuit of happiness."—Financial Times (UK)

"Transformative . . . Phillips can tease out contradictions with extraordinary delicacy . . . He shows that pleasure and desire are not simple; they can be feared . . . and used to hide things we should really see."—The Guardian (London)

"One of the finest prose stylists at work in the language, an Emerson of our time."—John Banville

"A set of beguiling essays . . . The author provides polished ponderables for all readers."—Kirkus Reviews