The title of Grosz's book, The Examined Life, is surely carefully chosen to remind the reader that the idea of the examined life has a noble and historic tradition that stretches back to the inscription on the Temple of Delphi that read ‘Know thy self’. In the hands of Socrates this became the ideal that the morally good life came through reflecting upon the state of the psyche or soul. Understanding your psyche has of course been the template upon which psychoanalysis has rested. But psychoanalysis has been reluctant to acknowledge Socrates' philosophic aim that exploring the state of your psyche will lead to a morally better life.

The examined life that interests Grosz is one that is haunted by the losses that we all suffer: ‘… change and loss are deeply connected - there cannot be change without