Psychoanalysis works by attending to the patient's side effects, "what falls out of his pockets once he starts speaking." Undergoing psychoanalytic therapy is always a leap into the dark—like dedicating our hearts and intellect to a powerful work of literature, it's impossible to know beforehand its ultimate effect and consequences. One must remain open to where the "side effects" will lead. Erudite, eloquent, and enthrallingly observant, Adam Phillips is one of the world's most respected psychoanalysts and a boldly original writer and thinker—and the ideal guide to exploring the provocative connections between psychoanalytic treatment and enduring, transformative literature. His fascinating and thoughtful Side Effects offers a valuable intellectual blueprint for the construction of a life beholden to no ideology other than the fulfillment of personal promise. Critical Acclaim: "These essays...are vintage Phillips: enlightening and intelligent; dynamic and delectably interdisciplinary."
— Time Out Contents: The master-mind lectures
Talking nonsense and knowing when to stop
Making the case
Doing it alone
For the family
On not making it up
Time pieces
The dream horizon
The forgetting museum
Learning to live
The uses of desire
Nuisance value
Waiting for returns
Two lectures on expectations
Paranoid moderns
The analyst and the bribe
Two talks on needing to know when it's over About the Author: Adam Phillips is the author of eleven previous books, including Going Sane; On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored; Darwin's Worms; and Houdini's Box. He writes regularly for the New York Times, the London Review of Books, and The Observer. He is general editor of the new Penguin Modern Classics translations of Freud. He lives in London. | 
