Going Sane

by Adam Phillips (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2005

  $5.20

  Going Sane explores a curious and telling contradiction that goes to the heart of the ways in which we think and talk about ourselves and others: the fact that we are better able to address the subject of madness than that of sanity. For the last three hundred years in the West there have been elaborate descriptions available of what it is to be mad, but no comparable accounts of what it might be to be sane. Now Adam Phillips takes a variety of areas key to our lives, including money, sex, and childhood, and suggests what a sane approach to these might be. And in a wholly original conclusion he gives us a utopian and uplifting vision of what life might be like for a sane person in the modern world.

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $14.87

  Being sane has long been defined simply as that bland and nebulous state of not being mentally ill. While writings on madness fill entire libraries, until now no one has thought to engage exclusively with the idea of sanity.In a society governed by indulgence and excess, madness is the state of mind we identify with most keenly. Though ultimately destructive, it is often credited as the wellspring of genius, individuality, and self-expression. Sanity, on the other hand, confounds us. One of the world's most respected psychoanalysts and original thinkers, Adam Phillips redresses this historical imbalance. He strips our lives back to essentials, focusing on how we as human beings, parents, lovers, as people to whom work matters can make space for a sane and well-balanced attitude to living. In a world saturated by tales of dysfunction and suffering, he offers a way forward that is as down-to-earth and realistic as it is uplifting and hopeful.

• New

  Paperback
  2007

  $16.53

  Being sane has long been defined simply as that bland and nebulous state of not being mentally ill. While writings on madness fill entire libraries, until now no one has thought to engage exclusively with the idea of sanity.In a society governed by indulgence and excess, madness is the state of mind we identify with most keenly. Though ultimately destructive, it is often credited as the wellspring of genius, individuality, and self-expression. Sanity, on the other hand, confounds us. One of the world's most respected psychoanalysts and original thinkers, Adam Phillips redresses this historical imbalance. He strips our lives back to essentials, focusing on how we as human beings, parents, lovers, as people to whom work matters can make space for a sane and well-balanced attitude to living. In a world saturated by tales of dysfunction and suffering, he offers a way forward that is as down-to-earth and realistic as it is uplifting and hopeful.