ONLINE – The Life You Want: Book Launch with Adam Phillips

This ticket is for ONLINE access to this event. All registrants will receive their link to join via ZOOM. Attendees will also receive access to the recording on the Monday after the event, available to watch back for 3 months.

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Join us for this special evening event to celebrate the publication of acclaimed psychoanalyst and essayist Adam Phillips' latest book The Life You Want. In this deeply reflective and insightful book, Phillips examines the complex nature of desire, enjoyment, and the lives we envision for ourselves — questioning the gap between the lives we wish to live and the lives we feel we must merely endure.

At this book launch event, Adam Phillips will be joined in conversation by Clare Carlisle, Professor of Philosophy at King’s College London and author of several books on philosophy. Together, they will delve into the key themes of The Life You Want, addressing questions such as: how do we form ideas about the lives we want; where do these ideas come from, and what holds us back from achieving the lives we desire?

Their conversation will explore the intersection of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and literature, shedding light on the ambivalence we feel about wanting and living a fulfilling life in a world full of contradictions. This event promises a thought-provoking evening that invites reflection on the lives we long for and the forces that shape them.

Please click here if you would like to purchase an in-house ticket.

About the book

Where do we get ideas about the lives we want? And, what do we do – and fail to do – about actually getting them? In The Life You Want Adam Phillips uses psychoanalytic and literary approaches to show that we are obsessed by the idea of our lives being ones we want and enjoy rather than merely endure, tolerate or make the most of.

Through a series of interlinked essays, Phillips explores the difficulties we have around the whole idea of enjoying – and fashioning – our lives in cultures that insistently promote enjoyment while making it very difficult for so many people.

Exploring the personal and political overlap in the issue of our lives, The Life You Want is a profound examination of our ambivalence about enjoyment, and indeed, wanting.

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Speakers:

Adam Phillips, formerly Principal Child Psychotherapist at Charing Cross Hospital, London, is a practising psychoanalyst and a visiting professor in the English department at the University of York. He is the author of numerous works of psychoanalysis and literary criticism, including most recently On Giving Up, On Wanting to Change, Attention Seeking, In Writing, Unforbidden Pleasures and Missing Out. He is General Editor of the Penguin Modern Classics Freud translations, and a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature.

Clare Carlisle is Professor of Philosophy at King’s College London and the author of eight books on philosophy and philosophers — including Spinoza, Kierkegaard and George Eliot. Her latest book, Transcendence for Beginners, is about life writing and philosophy.

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Tickets: £10

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The purpose of this event is to raise funds for the Freud Museum London, which receives no regular Government income. We are grateful to you for supporting our independent museum as generously as possible.