Equals

Though Equals is psychoanalyst-essayist Adam Phillips's (On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored) attempt to branch out into political thinking, the best essays in the collection, many of which have been previously published, are the ones about Freud and his followers. Particular standouts include ""Around and About Madness,"" in which Phillips argues that ""madness like what we call pornography is that which we cannot remain indifferent to,"" and his reviews of John Lanchester's Mr Phillips (""that hitherto unthinkable, almost absurd thing, a great English Existential novel"") and Ray Monk's biography of Bertrand Russell.