Anyone picking up The Life You Want seeking easily digestible guidance on how to meet life's challenges is in for something of a surprise. In these seven concise, erudite, frequently dense essays, British psychoanalyst Adam Phillips (On Wanting to Change) is less interested in dispensing advice about how to do that than he is in plumbing some of the depths of human consciousness explored by Sigmund Freud, his followers, and his critics.
Beginning with the opening essay, "On Getting the Life You Want," Phillips introduces the book's central theme: the contrast between Freud's theory of the unconscious--a "different, alien, unlearned, instinct-driven form of thinking"--and the view that American pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty espoused. Rorty, as Phillips characterizes his view, describes the unconscious (or as he calls it, "unconscious selves") as "potentially good company, a group of selves more than able to keep our best interests in mind. Really useful, helpful and informed."
The Life You Want clearly presumes a grounding in psychoanalytic theory and might have benefited from some explanatory notes and a list of titles for further reading to provide help for those not already versed in the concepts and controversies Phillips addresses. That includes frequent references to some lesser-known psychoanalysts (at least to general readers), like Jean Laplanche and Sándor Ferenczio. Though it's likely to be a challenging undertaking, anyone interested in taking a deep dive into theories of the unconscious and its impact on how we live our lives will find The Life You Want intriguing and may be inspired to go further in their own investigation. ---Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer