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This collection of fantasies and meditations was first published in 1966. The tone of the writing is bleak, as Owen Renik observes in his introduction, which gives an excellent overview of Wheelis's books. In contrast, his 1958 book, The Quest for Identity, is more inspiring, less dark.
The thinking of Wheelis in 1958 might be summarized as follows: When the inevitable disillusionment with psychoanalysis begins to set in, several courses are possible, each involving pain and loss, with perhaps the most seductive being a retreat into dogma. If, however, deepening inner conflict and discouragement can be endured, it will seem that nothing of lasting value can be accomplished. The principles of psychoanalysis become conjectures, jettisoned one by one, until finally all that remains is a belief in the significance of unconscious motivation to neurotic misery. Sometimes even this is lost. The psychoanalyst may make of her doubts a counterdogma and become a professional dissident, or she may retain only the belief that it is possible for one person to help another. If she prevails, she will discover that the