Slochower's book is a reissue of his No Voice Is Wholly Lost (New York and London, 1965). Its psychoanalytic relevance lies in a transposition of ego psychology to literary and philosophical movements. The main thesis of the book is that artistic creativity entails esthetic affirmation which transcends genetic-historical pressures towards “alienation.” On another level, Slochower's study would integrate sociological and psychoanalytic motivations, as indicated in the chapter on Marx and Freud. The argument of the book is developed in analyses of representative writers, such as Kafka, Proust, Steinbeck, Malraux, Thomas Mann and of thinkers, such as Nietzsche, Marx, Dewey, Santayana and Spengler.