Attention Seeking - Adam Phillips

Based on three connected talks on the subject of attention, this pocket-sized book is a quirky and memorable introduction to the concept of our attention - how we spend it, and what it might tell us about ourselves. From Britain's pre-eminent psychoanalyst, this is an essential new addition to the Adam Phillips canon.

We are attention-seeking, but we are not supposed to be. We are curious, but there are things we mustn't be curious about. We like to look, and to listen, and to touch, but we need to be careful. Yet we don't always give attention the attention it deserves.

In Attention Seeking, Phillips shows us the kind of attention we might want, and fear, and the kind of attention we might want, and need, to pay. In four provocative and closely argued essays, Phillips maps our the fears and the longings that inspire and constrain our attention, and reveals what our attention shows us about ourselves.