We have been taught to wish for it, but the wish to be understood may be our most vengeful demand, may be the way we hang on, as adults ,
ADAM PHILLIPSWe have been taught to wish for it, but the wish to be understood may be our most vengeful demand, may be the way we hang on, as adults ,
ADAM PHILLIPSTo our grudge against our mothers; the way we never let our mothers off the hook for their not meeting our every need.
ADAM PHILLIPSThere is nothing more scandalous than a happy marriage
ADAM PHILLIPSSanity, in other words, becomes a pressing preoccupation as soon as we recognize the importance of recognition.
ADAM PHILLIPSWanting to be understood, as adults, can be our most violent form of nostalgia.
ADAM PHILLIPSExcesses of appetite are self-cures for feelings of hopelessness. ..
ADAM PHILLIPSThe big secret about Art is that no one wants it to be true.
ADAM PHILLIPSTransgression is a quest for solitude
ADAM PHILLIPSYou write to find out what you believe.
ADAM PHILLIPSOne thing you discover in psychoanalytic treatment is the limits of what you can change about yourself or your life.
ADAM PHILLIPSEverybody is dealing with how much of their own aliveness they can bear and how much they need to anesthetize themselves.
ADAM PHILLIPSWhen we define ourselves by what we can recognize, by what we can comprehend- rather than, say, by what we can describe
ADAM PHILLIPSThe child [uses] ‘doubt about food to hide doubt about love.’
ADAM PHILLIPSWe are tyrannized by our blind spots, and by whatever it is about ourselves that we find unacceptable.
ADAM PHILLIPSSanity, as the project of keeping ourselves recognizably human, therefore has to limit the range of human experience.
ADAM PHILLIPSTo keep faith with recognition we have to stay recognizable.
ADAM PHILLIPS