"The past influences everything and dictates nothing."
Adam Phillips is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and essayist. Since 2003, he has been the general editor of the Penguin Modern Classics translations of Sigmund Freud. He has been a visiting professor at the University of York English department since 2006.
Previously, Phillips worked for the NHS as the principal child psychotherapist at Charing Cross Hospital for 17 years, before opening his private practice. He is the author of numerous bestselling books, including On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored. His most recent book is On Giving Up. He is also a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, Raritan and The Threepenny Review.
"Britain's foremost psychoanalytic writer" — Joan Acocella, The New Yorker