Being sane has long been defined simply as that bland and nebulous state of not being mentally ill. While writings on madness fill entire libraries, until now no one has thought to engage exclusively with the idea of sanity.
In a society governed by indulgence and excess, madness is the state of mind we identify with most keenly. Though ultimately destructive, it is often credited as the wellspring of genius, individuality, and self-expression. Sanity, on the other hand, confounds us. One of the world's most respected psychoanalysts and original thinkers, Adam Phillips redresses this historical imbalance. He strips our lives back to essentials, focusing on how we—as human beings, parents, lovers, as people to whom work matters—can make space for a sane and well-balanced attitude to living. In a world saturated by tales of dysfunction and suffering, he offers a way forward that is as down-to-earth and realistic as it is uplifting and hopeful.
This had to be the most inane book that I have read in years. The whole point of this unfortunate expenditure of money seems to be that sane people can't get any respect. The entire book is a repetitive tirade over the word sanity, and over sanity itself being given short shrift while the word insanity and the insane get all of the glory (attention).
If you seek a book on sanity and its fragility which matters, read anything by Kay Redfield Jamison (starting with An Unquiet Mind).
There is little more to this book than about one "letter to the editor" worth of thesis. All the rest of this airy, repetitive, double spaced clap trap is just filling. I must assume the one good review above was submitted by someone related to the author for there can be little else to speak in favor of it than personal affinity for it's creator.
I donate old books to the Salvation Army but I can't give this to them in good conscience knowing someone else might actually read it.
While, on the surface, this book is pretty self-evident and an interesting read, I have to admit that I have found myself thinking about the ideas presented here long after putting down the book. This, to me, is the sign of a surpising and really good book with worthwhile ideas.
The ideas in this book provide the antidote to all the naysayers who claim that psychotherapy and the recovery and new-age movements all need to pathologize the human condition. My problem with all the critics is that they often don't offer any real solution. Phillips' book starts this discussion with an eye for the direction that psychotherapy should be heading.
