The Cure for Psychoanalysis

Description

This book contains two brilliant essays by one of the foremost thinkers in the field of psychoanalysis. In the first essay, 'The Magic of Winnicott,' Adam Phillips makes clear the subtlety and wisdom of Winnicott's concept of play. In 'The Cure for Psychoanalysis' he works through psychoanalytic theories about cure and instructs us to take most seriously those that free the analyst and patient to wonder and to take pleasure in the unknowable adventure ahead of them. These two thought-provoking writings frame a discussion between the author and Edward Corrigan, analyst and friend, which offers an intimate portrait of two analysts in conversation, thoughtfully reflecting on traditions that inform Phillips' practice and prolific works. This record of 'A Day with Adam Phillips' at the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy in New York includes questions and commentaries which demonstrate the creative and open expression encouraged by and reflected in the practice of psychoanalysis itself.

Adam Phillips is a practising psychoanalyst, formerly Principal Child Psychotherapist at Charing Cross Hospital, London. He is General Editor of the Penguin Modern Classics Freud translations and the author of numerous works of psychoanalysis and literary criticism, including most recently On Wanting to Change, Attention Seeking and Unforbidden Pleasures.

"The book's call and response format, the supple back and forth movement between Phillips and his audience ... serves as an ideal introduction to a by now forbiddingly expansive and continually expanding body of work ... succeeds in reaching into the heart of his thinking to give us its fundamental questions and stakes, especially when it comes to our clinical practice: Why do we bother with psychoanalysis? How does it serve the aim of ensuring life is worth the effort?" -- - British Journal of Psychotherapy "As much a philosophy of life as a book about psychoanalysis... the lay person can pick up this book and grasp its content-there's no banging your head against technical jargon or impenetrable analytic language. It's a short book, which you can read in an afternoon, and be all the better for it... As you leaf through the pages, you are touched by someone who has been in touch with life in many forms... I could say much more, but I'll let the magic of the book surprise you too." -- Stillpoint Magazine