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On Kindness
On Kindness
On Kindness
Ebook106 pages2 hours

On Kindness

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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In this brilliant, epigrammatic book, the eminent psychoanalyst Adam Phillips and the social historian Barbara Taylor examine the terrors of kindness and return to the reader the intense satisfactions of generosity and compassion.

Kindness is the foundation of the world's great religions and most-enduring philosophies. Why, then, does being kind feel so dangerous? If we crave kindness with such intensity, why is it often the last pleasure we permit ourselves? And why—despite our longing—are we often suspicious when we are on the receiving end of it?

Drawing on intellectual history, literature, psychoanalysis, and contemporary social theory, this brief and essential book will return to its readers what Marcus Aurelius declared was mankind's "greatest delight": the intense satisfactions of generosity and compassion.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 22, 2010
ISBN9781429957571
On Kindness
Author

Adam Phillips

Adam Phillips is one of the foremost psychoanalysts practicing in the world today, and a visiting professor in the English department at the University of York. He is the author of many books, including On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored; and On Balance. He is also coauthor, with the historian Barbara Taylor, of On Kindness.

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Rating: 3.3928572714285714 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I dislike this book. When I first started reading it I noticed that there was absolutely no mention of Eastern conceptions of compassion and kindness. That's fine, I thought, it's a short book. I really enjoyed the section titled A Short History of Kindness. But everything that follows is steeped in Freudian claptrap. And it just goes on and on and on. The book is only 114 pages long and I stopped at 60. Instinctually, I think Freud is horseshit. The man's theories in no way correspond to how I view my life. My kindness for others, sorry Mr. Phillips, is in no way part of my sexuality. It is Eastern in its basic nature, it abjures the ego, and is at the heart of all that makes my life wonderful. I refuse to bemerde it with psychoanalytic pettifoggery. One final note: in all of the blurbage, or paratext as Dr. Eco would call it, for this book not once does the word Freud occur. Now, why is that, do you think?

    NOT recommended.

    2 people found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I got this book after reading an article on happiness in the Guardian last week. I found that very interesting and this book - this little book which fits the hand so nicely - is also interesting. Makes the point that kindness is related to the words 'kin' and 'kind' in the sense of the same sort. Suggests that fellow feeling is a natural feeling which we have sort of denied in recent times and that kindness is something we like to do, it is good for us and makes us feel good. I am now reading the history behind it and there is a lot of stuff about Rousseau and his thoughts on this - he was a kindness superstar in his time though he farmed out all his children. Another reviewer here got lost in the psychoanalytic material which I have hardly hit yet.

    1 person found this helpful

Book preview

On Kindness - Adam Phillips

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