Adam Phillips

In "The Pieces You Left," the delicate tapestry of loss and remembrance is intricately woven through vivid imagery and raw emotion. Each poem captures the fleeting moments and lingering echoes of those who have departed, exploring the fragments of love that remain long after they have gone. Through poignant verses, the author invites readers into a world where memories dance like shadows, and the heartache of absence is met with a profound sense of beauty. This collection navigates the complexities of grief, healing, and the bittersweet nature of nostalgia, inviting us to reflect on our own experiences of love and loss. As words spill onto the page, they become a refuge for the broken-hearted and a celebration of the connections that shape our lives. "The Pieces You Left" serves as a testament to the enduring impact of those we hold dear, encouraging us to embrace both the sorrow and the joy that comes from a life well-lived.

In "The Pieces You Left," the delicate tapestry of loss and remembrance is intricately woven through vivid imagery and raw emotion. Each poem captures the fleeting moments and lingering echoes of those who have departed, exploring the fragments of love that remain long after they have gone. Through poignant verses, the author invites readers into a world where memories dance like shadows, and the heartache of absence is met with a profound sense of beauty. This collection navigates the complexities of grief, healing, and the bittersweet nature of nostalgia, inviting us to reflect on our own experiences of love and loss. As words spill onto the page, they become a refuge for the broken-hearted and a celebration of the connections that shape our lives. "The Pieces You Left" serves as a testament to the enduring impact of those we hold dear, encouraging us to embrace both the sorrow and the joy that comes from a life well-lived.

In "You and Me in Every Lifetime," the eternal dance of love and connection unfolds through a tapestry of verses that transcend time and space. This collection explores the profound bonds that link souls across ages, resonating with the heartbeat of shared experiences and whispers of fate. Each poem invites readers on a journey through past lives and future dreams, celebrating the depth of relationships that defy the constraints of mortality. With vivid imagery and evocative language, the author captures moments of joy, longing, and transcendence, reminding us that love remains a constant, echoing through every chapter of existence. Dive into this lyrical exploration of destiny and devotion, where every line evokes a sense of familiarity and wonder, affirming that some connections are indeed inevitable-binding us together in every lifetime.

"Chasing Sunsets Together" is a heartfelt collection of poems that captures the beauty of shared moments as day turns to night. Each verse paints a vivid picture of love, friendship, and the fleeting nature of time, inviting readers to embrace the warmth of connection against the backdrop of vibrant skies. Through rich imagery and poignant language, the poet explores the delicate threads that bind us together, celebrating the joy found in simple experiences and the bittersweet nature of parting. This book is an ode to the journeys we take with those we cherish, reminding us that even as sunsets fade, the memories we create will forever glow in our hearts. Join the poet on a lyrical adventure that weaves together themes of nostalgia, hope, and the enduring power of love, as "Chasing Sunsets Together" invites you to reflect on the moments that illuminate your life.

In "You and Me in Every Lifetime," the eternal dance of love and connection unfolds through a tapestry of verses that transcend time and space. This collection explores the profound bonds that link souls across ages, resonating with the heartbeat of shared experiences and whispers of fate. Each poem invites readers on a journey through past lives and future dreams, celebrating the depth of relationships that defy the constraints of mortality. With vivid imagery and evocative language, the author captures moments of joy, longing, and transcendence, reminding us that love remains a constant, echoing through every chapter of existence. Dive into this lyrical exploration of destiny and devotion, where every line evokes a sense of familiarity and wonder, affirming that some connections are indeed inevitable-binding us together in every lifetime.

"Chasing Sunsets Together" is a heartfelt collection of poems that captures the beauty of shared moments as day turns to night. Each verse paints a vivid picture of love, friendship, and the fleeting nature of time, inviting readers to embrace the warmth of connection against the backdrop of vibrant skies. Through rich imagery and poignant language, the poet explores the delicate threads that bind us together, celebrating the joy found in simple experiences and the bittersweet nature of parting. This book is an ode to the journeys we take with those we cherish, reminding us that even as sunsets fade, the memories we create will forever glow in our hearts. Join the poet on a lyrical adventure that weaves together themes of nostalgia, hope, and the enduring power of love, as "Chasing Sunsets Together" invites you to reflect on the moments that illuminate your life.

A powerful exploration of the human capacity for renewal, as seen through Shakespeare and Freud “A compellingly readable and intelligent book. . . . Both authors write with impressive energy.”—Rowan Williams, New Statesman In this fresh investigation, Stephen Greenblatt and Adam Phillips explore how the second chance has been an essential feature of the literary imagination and a promise so central to our existence that we try to reproduce it again and again. Innumerable stories, from the Homeric epics to the New Testament, and from Oedipus Rex to Hamlet, explore the realization or failure of second chances—outcomes that depend on accident, acts of will, or fate. Such stories let us repeatedly rehearse the experience of loss and recovery: to know the joy that comes with a renewal of love and pleasure and to face the pain that comes with realizing that some damage can never be undone. Through a series of illuminating readings, the authors show how Shakespeare was the supreme virtuoso of the second chance and Freud was its supreme interpreter. Both Shakespeare and Freud believed that we can narrate our life stories as tales of transformation, of momentous shifts, constrained by time and place but often still possible. Ranging from The Comedy of Errors to The Winter’s Tale, and from D. W. Winnicott to Marcel Proust, the authors challenge readers to imagine how, as Phillips writes, “it is the mending that matters.”

Adam Phillips has come to an uncertain crossroads in his life when a clear purpose finally reveals itself; don't die from cancer. As the odd side effects of chemo gradually develop into superpowers, he discovers that his ultimate purpose is nothing short of saving the world... Sharp, inventive, and brutal, THE DARK ARTIST is a memoir-superhero mash-up starring Adam Phillips, a cancer survivor with the power to hear the suffering of others - and act on it. Prepare to be crushed by the granular details of Phillips'chemotherapy (a devastating combo of body horror and humor), then to be plunged face-first into violent, retributive action sequences that flash like a Frank Miller comic. The result is a profound, unforgettable, and utterly new kind of herowho battles moral ambivalence, the villainous underworld of Missoula, Montana, and the cancer trying to destroy him from the inside out. "I get to know," reflects a hardened Phillips. "Others don't." Well, not until they pick up this book.- Simeon Mills, author of THE OBSOLETES

One of The New York Times Critics' Picks of the Year From acclaimed psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, a meditation on what we must give up to feel more alive. To give up or not to give up? The question can feel inescapable but the answer is never simple. Giving up our supposed vices is one thing; giving up on life itself is quite another. One form of self-sacrifice feels positive, something to admire and aspire to, while the other is profoundly unsettling, if not actively undesirable. There are always, it turns out, both good and bad sacrifices, but it is not always clear beforehand which is which. We give something up because we believe we can no longer go on as we are. In this sense, giving up is a critical moment--an attempt to make a different future. In On Giving Up, the acclaimed psychoanalyst Adam Phillips illuminates both the gaps and the connections between the many ways of giving up and helps us to address the central question: What must we give up in order to feel more alive?

'A wise, generous book' Washington PostFrom acclaimed psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, a meditation on what we must give up to feel more alive. To give up or not to give up? The question can feel inescapable but the answer is never simple. Giving up our supposed vices is one thing; giving up on life itself is quite another. One form of self-sacrifice feels positive, something to admire and aspire to, while the other is profoundly unsettling, if not actively undesirable. There are always, it turns out, both good and bad sacrifices, but it is not always clear beforehand which is which. We give something up because we believe we can no longer go on as we are. In this sense, giving up is a critical moment - an attempt to make a different future. In On Giving Up, acclaimed psychoanalyst Adam Phillips illuminates both the gaps and the connections between the many ways of giving up, and helps us to address the central question: what must we give up in order to feel more alive?'One of the finest prose stylists in the language, an Emerson of our time' John Banville'The best living essayist writing in English' John Gray

From the UK's foremost literary psychoanalyst, a dazzling new book on the universal urge to change our lives. We live in a world in which we are invited to change--to become our best selves through politics, or fitness, or diet, or therapy. We change all the time--growing older and older--and how we think about change changes over time too. We want to think of our lives as progress myths--as narratives of positive personal growth--at the same time as we inevitably age and suffer setbacks. Adam Phillips's sparkling book On Wanting to Change explores the stories we tell about change, and the changes we actually make--and the fact that they don't always go, or come, together.

On Getting Better is a thoughtful and compact book about self-improvement from Britain's leading psychoanalyst, author of Missing Out and On Kindness. To talk about getting better--about wanting to change in ways that we might choose and prefer--is to talk about pursuing the life we want, in the full knowledge that our pictures of the life we want, of our version of a good life, come from what we have already experienced. (We write the sentences we write because of the sentences we have read.) How can we talk differently about how we might want to change, knowing that all change precipitates us into an uncertain future? In this companion book to On Wanting to Change, Adam Phillips explores how we might get better at talking about what it is to get better.

Attention Seeking is a short, fascinating introduction to the concept of attention from Britain's leading psychoanalyst, author of Missing Out and On Kindness. Everything depends on what, if anything, we find interesting: on what we are encouraged and educated to find interesting, and what we find ourselves being interested in despite ourselves. There is our official curiosity and our unofficial curiosity (and psychoanalysis is a story about the relationship between the two). Based on three connected lectures by Adam Phillips, this compact book is a lucid and memorable introduction to the concept of our attention, spanning from interest to obsession, private desire to corporate commodity. What is attention, and why do we seek it? How does our culture moralize attention as a force in need of control? Phillips is one of our brightest and most unusual thinkers, uniquely capable of bringing our deepest impulses and instincts to light.

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.

From the UK's foremost literary psychoanalyst, a dazzling new book on the universal urge to change our lives. We live in a world in which we are invited to change - to become our best selves, through politics, or fitness, or diet, or therapy. We change all the time - growing older and older - and how we think about change changes over time too. We want to think of our lives as progress myths - as narratives of positive personal growth - at the same time as we inevitably age and suffer setbacks. So there are the stories we tell about change, and there are the changes we actually make - and they don't always go, or come, together . . . This sparkling book is about that fact.

From a death row prison on a storm-swept coast to the dark old-growth forests of Oregon, to the hardscrabble semi-pro diamonds of the unsettled West, a dark figure and a baseball prodigy pursue their intertwined destiny. Will one have to destroy the other to find his path? With their combined power, will they be able to rise above the forces of history, or will the world take them back, interring both beneath the water and the dirt? One of the most singular baseball novels ever written. Adam Phillips possesses a narrative voice that takes hold on page one and never falters.- Steve Kluger, author of Last Days of SummerAdam Phillips writes with verve and bravado, and stories within stories pour out of his pen, each more incredible and entertaining than the last. Manifest is a great ride, fast, funny, and right on the outside corner.- Kevin Baker, author of Sometimes You See It ComingWith Manifest, Adam Phillips gives us a compelling novel populated by a rich collection of vivid, sometimes nearly mythic characters who actually seem to breathe on the page - characters on the edge of hopelessness whose sole chance for salvation lies in the redemptive power of baseball.- Joe Schuster, author of The Might Have Been

A habitual drifter and a college basketball star tell concurrent stories of how they are lost, alternately destroyed and hopeful, as they try to figure out what to do with themselves, what's the point of it all, and what if they never figure it out? Set in northern Idaho, the title of the book is from a James Tate poem, "Manna," which describes a moment of ineffable beauty and reassurance.