Unforbidden Pleasures

Phillips (On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored), a British psychoanalyst, explores the tension between ”forbidden” and “unforbidden” pleasures in this dense, erudite book. Going back to the story of Genesis and to Milton’s retelling of it in Paradise Lost, he argues that modern Western culture remains constrained by the association between the pleasurable and the taboo. In reality, Phillips asserts, people often draw more pleasure from the ordinary things in life—a morning cup of coffee, one another’s company, kindness—than from forbidden acts. He goes on to name more unforbidden pleasures, including self-criticism and obedience, noting about the latter that “whom we obey and how we obey—and what we are doing when we obey—will be the defining factors in our lives.” Philips suggests that people can become less judgmental about permissible types of pleasure by changing their moral vocabulary. In this, he draws inspiration from the writings of Oscar Wilde, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud, each of whom, he shows, recommended the replacement of certain words with others—“beauty” rather than “goodness,” “delight” rather than “duty”—in order to reshape people’s underlying ideas. Digressive and often paradoxical, this slim volume is rich in psychological, philosophical, and literary insight. Agent: Amy Rennert, Amy Rennert Agency. (May)