Adam Phillips

British psychoanalyst and prolific essayist who writes about psychoanalysis, desire, literature, and the good life in a style that blends clinical insight with literary essay — whose books include On Kissing Tickling and Being Bored, Missing Out, and On Balance.

Argues that psychoanalysis is a form of literary criticism applied to a life — and that the central question it poses is not 'what do you want?' but 'what would you want if you could want anything?' — making psychoanalysis a practice of desire education rather than symptom relief.