In this book of great richness and complexity, Luis Kancyper presents his ideas on the fraternal complex, which may be defined as “an organized set of hostile and loving desires the child experiments with regard to his siblings” (p. 243; all translations mine). For Kancyper, the complex is comparable in importance to the other two keystones of psychoanalysis—narcissism and the oedipus complex—and every human situation is to be viewed psychodynamically as a combination of elements of the narcissisistic, fraternal, and oedipal dimensions. The aim of the book is to demonstrate the importance and omnipresence of the fraternal complex in human societies throughout history, the harm that may result when conflicts and unresolved issues inherent to the complex are passed on to succeeding generations, and the use clinicians can make of these concepts in