Side Effects

by Adam Phillips

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.

Genres: Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Nonfiction

338 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 27, 2006

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

[Andy]

Hardly any other psychologist writes as well as Adam Phillips does.

And desire is usually the contemporary word for the risk not taken, for the missed opportunity; the unlived life that seems the only life worth living. - Adam Phillips, Side Effects

[Aaron Ambrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phillips always has something interesting and counterintuitive to say, but this one gets more into the theoretical and logistical aspects of practicing psychotherapy, which occasionally made it hard to keep pace. It felt like being a casual hiker trying to keep up with a professional sherpa.

There was also a bit more repetition than seemed necessary, as if Phillips had narrated his thoughts into a tape recorder and didn't spend much time tightening things up on the transcription side.

But Phillips is Phillips, and my head is jammy with new ideas to think about. A couple that stood out: Our deepest desires are so troubling to our conscious selves that we all basically have a full-time job of deluding ourselves in uncountable ways - for example, as rich and amazing as language is, the more thoughtfully and coherently we can describe our desires is a dead giveaway that we are misrepresenting them. Hence, free association is a way for us to talk "incoherently" in the presence of someone (the analyst) who can possibly find some meaning in the jumble of images, associations, noise.

Another illuminating thought is the idea that - again, because our true desires are horrifying to our ego and artfully hidden from ourselves - in nearly all ways we really only want what is seemingly out of reach, because permitted desires don't overlay the desire map in the ocean floor of our psyche, so they don't resonate.

[Shaun · Rating 3 out of 5]

As part of my project to read all books by Phillips (AP), this was my latest read. My sense is that in this book AP was pushing the boundaries on some of his ideas into an unknown actively a bit further than before. His general sentiments on creativity and death don’t fully resonate with me, but there is a lot that did resonate with me.

I will come back and expand on this, but here is a summary of the main ideas and topics I struggled with that I discussed with AI.

There is an element of transgression at play in desire. The how and why can be explored through various theories, but it seems as though desires are a bit more charged when some kind of boundary is involved and when there is something at stake.

What is desire? It’s the ambiguous feeling that does not have anything clearly attached to it. It stands in contrast to needs and demands, which have clear objectives. Ever have a feeling that something is missing in your life but you can’t quite put your finger on it? It can have a haunting presence: dissatisfaction, sadness are just examples of what this can feel like. In theory at least, this is because your whole life you have to watch what you do, say, think, and inhibit your bodily needs and direct your wants in a certain direction. So your whole life you’ve ignored yourself, and it escapes in ways that you don’t understand. This is why exploring the unlived life becomes an important project to get back in touch with yourself.

Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living, but the idea that irony can be bad is quite profound. Being too jokey, intellectual, knowing, cynical, self-critical stands in the way of exploring ourselves.

I thought about this: waking life is utterly exhausting, actually, with all the demands and desires and inhibitions already mentioned above. No wonder falling asleep feels so great, and dreams are so unhinged. This got me thinking, what if we use dreams and daydreams as a release of emotion and a way to be more free? We can’t control what we dream, but we can daydream a bit more actively. Anyway, I think this is why we dream. It’s really important, actually. Maybe being able to dream a lot and being able to free associate are somehow similar too.

It is only because things repeat that we seek change. Make it new is a good goal, unless that too gets in your way.

[JP · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's starts with "Freudian slip" when you do casual talks suddenly someone open the paddle lock of your pigeon hole where you hidden your secrets. All your secrets of opinions and facts will just come out like "a cat jump out of the bag" and put you in embracing situation,
For such talks Freud created a concept called "psycho therapy" where patience are allowed to do carefree talks

It's an hand book for therapist and lovely journey to understand the concept of hidden Beauvoir
Some chapters are superb
Essays on
Expectations
Bribe
Ending
Nuisance
Desire,,
Every essays has an immense discussion and interpretation
Author has mastered the subject before penning it down and nice journey
A lovely book for therapist..

[M. Sarki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another wonderful and important book by Adam Phillips. Please read my review here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/msarki/...

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really loved some of these essays but not others. I wonder whether I will connect to different ones if I read it again in ...ten...years.

[Brendaliddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The chapter I found very interesting was 'On Not Making it Up: The Varieties of Creative Experience.' I like the distinction he makes between the and the Promethean: 'The sacramental poet, the carver forges himself; the erotic poet, the Promethean, the modeller endorses himself. In one the version of the self is the instrument, in the other it is the obstacle.'
His insights into Freud are illuminating: 'The ego is a utopian but the past just keep giving birth to itself.'

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guy was a psychoanalyst for kids. He stopped practicing because he found it too depressing. What did he expect? Also, I'd guess spending time thinking about literature is a lot more interesting than spending time with catatonic children.