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A Spirit of Inquiry, by Joseph Lichtenberg, Frank Lachmann, and James Fosshage, reflects a complexity of thought belied by the book's modest size. A first reading of this monograph will be insufficient for the reader to appreciate fully the many intricate technical and theoretical issues dealt with here. This is the third volume collaborated on by these authors. While the other works approach different aspects of relational psychoanalysis, a reading of all three will help to elucidate the authors’ clinical and theoretical framework. In A Spirit of Inquiry, Lichtenberg, Lachmann, and Fosshage create a developmental schema to bolster their understanding of why a relational approach is central to the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis. The relational model they generate is unique and offers a complex understanding of how therapeutic action occurs. They integrate systems theory and a developmental model incorporating data from attachment research, neuroscience, self psychology, and child observation. The result is an intersubjective model whose richness results from its fine interconnections among various neighboring theories (e.g., self psychology), as well as from its own innovative aspects. A decade of collaboration among these three clinicians has produced a sophisticated and useful viewpoint within psychoanalytic theory.