Missing Out

In Praise of the Unlived Life

Nonfiction, Health & Well Being, Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy
Cover of the book Missing Out by Adam Phillips, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Adam Phillips ISBN: 9781429949538
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication: January 22, 2013
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Language: English
Author: Adam Phillips
ISBN: 9781429949538
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication: January 22, 2013
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: English

A transformative book about the lives we wish we had and what they can teach us about who we are

All of us lead two parallel lives: the one we are actively living, and the one we feel we should have had or might yet have. As hard as we try to exist in the moment, the unlived life is an inescapable presence, a shadow at our heels. And this itself can become the story of our lives: an elegy to unmet needs and sacrificed desires. We become haunted by the myth of our own potential, of what we have in ourselves to be or to do. And this can make of our lives a perpetual falling-short.
But what happens if we remove the idea of failure from the equation? With his flair for graceful paradox, the acclaimed psychoanalyst Adam Phillips suggests that if we accept frustration as a way of outlining what we really want, satisfaction suddenly becomes possible. To crave a life without frustration is to crave a life without the potential to identify and accomplish our desires.
In this elegant, compassionate, and absorbing book, Phillips draws deeply on his own clinical experience as well as on the works of Shakespeare and Freud, of D. W. Winnicott and William James, to suggest that frustration, not getting it, and and getting away with it are all chapters in our unlived lives—and may be essential to the one fully lived.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A transformative book about the lives we wish we had and what they can teach us about who we are

All of us lead two parallel lives: the one we are actively living, and the one we feel we should have had or might yet have. As hard as we try to exist in the moment, the unlived life is an inescapable presence, a shadow at our heels. And this itself can become the story of our lives: an elegy to unmet needs and sacrificed desires. We become haunted by the myth of our own potential, of what we have in ourselves to be or to do. And this can make of our lives a perpetual falling-short.
But what happens if we remove the idea of failure from the equation? With his flair for graceful paradox, the acclaimed psychoanalyst Adam Phillips suggests that if we accept frustration as a way of outlining what we really want, satisfaction suddenly becomes possible. To crave a life without frustration is to crave a life without the potential to identify and accomplish our desires.
In this elegant, compassionate, and absorbing book, Phillips draws deeply on his own clinical experience as well as on the works of Shakespeare and Freud, of D. W. Winnicott and William James, to suggest that frustration, not getting it, and and getting away with it are all chapters in our unlived lives—and may be essential to the one fully lived.

More books from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Cover of the book The Iron Road by Adam Phillips
Cover of the book After the Victorians by Adam Phillips
Cover of the book Frankenstein's Cat by Adam Phillips
Cover of the book Greetings from Nowhere by Adam Phillips
Cover of the book The Second Son by Adam Phillips
Cover of the book Silverchest by Adam Phillips
Cover of the book The Noodle Maker by Adam Phillips
Cover of the book The Survival Kit by Adam Phillips
Cover of the book Purity by Adam Phillips
Cover of the book This Is Our House by Adam Phillips
Cover of the book Rereadings by Adam Phillips
Cover of the book Hell's Traces by Adam Phillips
Cover of the book Eye of the Sixties by Adam Phillips
Cover of the book Whiskey by Adam Phillips
Cover of the book Standing Up to Mr. O. by Adam Phillips
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy