Side effects are things we do not intend. And, in this collection of essays, Adam Phillips examines how the things we don�t mean, or mean perhaps to forget, prove to be those that are often most telling about our unconscious lives. Phillips also intends for us to question our conscious pursuit of happiness, explaining that, in refusing to admit and explore life�s down sides, we can only be living half lives. And through his unique and incisive exploration of literature, Phillips also demonstrates what the great novelists have to tell us about ourselves. Both illuminating and fascinating on literature as well as life, Side Effects maps our edges as human beings, and, in doing so, goes some way to helping give shape to our lives.

Psychoanalysis as a form of therapy works by attending to the patient's side effects, that is, 'what falls out of his pockets once he starts speaking'. Undergoing psychoanalytic treatment is in many ways like reading a powerful work of literature - a leap into the dark, an opportunity to think the strangeness of your own thoughts. It is impossible to know beforehand the effect it will have. All we can do, as the essays in this book suggest, is see where the side effects will lead us. And that is part of the excitement of being alive. Adam Phillips guides the reader in this fascinating journey into the links between psychoanalysis, literature and the living of our everyday lives.