On Balance

June 21, 2010
British psychologist, philosopher, and literary critic Phillips (Going Sane) casts his net widely in this collection of lectures, broadcasts, articles, and unpublished essays, of varying lengths. Phillips examines our paradoxical desire for balance in all things and impulse toward imbalance. His, his themes and sources are so disparate, making this book a hard balancing act indeed. Working from a strongly Freudian point of view, Phillips is good at getting to the heart of existence; in terms of unbalance, he cites Freud saying that overreaction is impossible; he discisses how the reasonable liberal in matters of religion ironically creates a climate in which they desire to eradicate the believers, which means the destruction of his or her own belief system. Also enriching the book is the range of subjects alluded to, from literature (for example W.H. Auden) to fairy tales (Cinderella), and photography (Diane Arbus). Though often brilliant in the individual pieces, perhaps a third of the way through the book the pathway becomes less structured, as essay after essay is yoked together . Readers who pick and choose will come away enlightened and satisfied, rather than exhausted.