Dr Volkan has provided us with a detailed account of the four-year analysis of one patient, a physician he calls Dr Chris Albert. The intriguing title refers to a fantasy exposed in the analysis: that his adoptive mother came from humble parents (dandelions) and its counterpart, that she came from noble parents (roses). The gradual unfolding of the analysis reveals the analysand's answer to the question as he resolves his need to split his objects into the good, idealized roses and the depreciated dandelions.

In the first five pages, Dr Volkan captures the reader's attention by reporting the content of an