Adam Phillips |

Adam Phillips/RSA Interview: Psychoanalysis: Is it Worth It?

Adam Phillips, one of Britain’s most renowned psychoanalysts and literary figures, joined RSA Chief Executive Matthew Taylor for a conversation about life, the universe, and everything (and maybe a little Freud as well).

An enormously powerful and compelling discussion on the nature and scope of psychoanalysis today and its possibilities for the future. Subjects discussed include:

Psychoanalysis as a listening cure, not a talking cure

Adam Phillips on the fascination of the everyday

Why are people so unkind to each other: “one of the good things that psychoanalysis can do is show you a) why you repress your natural kindness; b) why you’re frightened of being kind; and c) what the enemies of being kind are within oneself”

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“If psychoanalysis has got nothing to contribute to politics, to group life, then it seems to me to be useless”

“Psychoanalysis doesn’t allow you to take refuge in cynicism, or in superioirty, or pessimism”

“It’s about finding what the obstacles are in enjoying each others’ company”

“ When I think about a mind it seems like a very abstract thing”

“I would be promoting psychoanalysts not contributing to coaching the masters of industry; I think they should be trying to sabotage the masters of industry”

It’s a beautifully modulated and insightful interview, and the questions from the audience at the end are equally thought-provoking and challenging, so it’s worth watching till the end.

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His most recent works include Unforbidden Pleasures, Missing Out: In Praise of the Unlived Life, Winnicott, Promises, Promises, Terrors and Experts, Promises, Promises: Essays on Literature and Psychoanalysis, One Way and Another: New and Selected Essays, Monogamy, On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored: Psychoanalytic Essays on the Unexamined Life, Going Sane, On Kindness, On Balance, and Becoming Freud

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