The sense of identity is a theme that pervades Florence Guignard's book like Ariadne's thread. The author takes a strictly Freudian view of sexuality and the drives. Following her previous book (Au vif de l'infantile. Lausanne: Delachaux et Niestlé, 1996), she now offers the reader a bold and stimulating metapsychological survey. The underlying inspiration of this interesting volume lies in the fundamental issues of the contemporary psychoanalytic debate.

For the author, the object is a ‘fleeting’—i.e. ‘polysemous’—concept. On the basis of the daily