Yasak Olmayan Hazlar by Adam Phillips

Psychologists and psychoanalysts often talk about forbidden pleasures, trying to explore the inner world of humans through them. Since prohibitions often fuel desire, forbidden pleasures always stand out, always craved more. But what about pleasures that are not forbidden? Do we appreciate their value, or does their value diminish in our eyes because they are not forbidden?

"This book explores whether pleasures that are not forbidden have more to tell us about pleasure than those that are," says Adam Phillips. "If this were true, so many things we take so seriously would lose their seriousness. The tyranny of the forbidden comes not from forbidding things, but from telling us what we want to do—we want to do what is forbidden. Whereas what is not forbidden gives no commands." Phillips addresses burning issues such as obedience, self-criticism, and whether life is worth living, in the context of forbidden and permissible pleasures. He encourages us to consider the forbidden pleasure of disobedience as well as the permissible pleasure of obedience. He says that self-criticism often means unjustly condemning oneself, whereas ruthless self-criticism itself can be a pleasure, a permissible pleasure. And he asks us all: “Is life unbearable, or is it forbidden for us to enjoy it? And if life is also a forbidden pleasure, who and why has forbidden it?”