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Distilling decades of therapeutic work into a slim volume that reads like a collection of short stories, Grosz offers an intriguing insight into contemporary psychoanalysis. A married father-of-four announces that he is thinking of coming out, aged 71, while a woman who has just celebrated her 50th birthday realises a sexy dream that bothered her was about her son.

Anger, boredom, self-delusion, lying, being stuck, Grosz even shows how boredom is worth thinking about. He draws not just on his patients, but literature too �� Scrooge shows us how we can’t live a life without loss, a Herman Melville character reveals how ‘we all have a cheering voice that says “let us start now, right away”�� and an opposing, negative voice that responds “I would prefer not to.”��

But the real joy of this book is that all this is done with such a light touch. I’d take issue with the other reviewer who suggests we go and read Freud instead �� many who are attracted to this book are unlikely to, and that’s what makes it worthwhile. It avoids jargon, and in an era when CBT is frequently hailed as The Answer to mental health problems (it’s just about the only therapy one can get on the NHS these days, and only then if you’re lucky), it’s a timely reminder not to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. Don’t get me wrong, I think CBT can be invaluable tool, but let’s remember looking at our entrenched patterns can help patients who suffer too. To have made complex theories accessible to a mainstream audience is a fine achievement.

Elegantly written, pithy and thought provoking �� The Examined Life is a total joy.