This volume, as the subtitle states, is ‘a casebook of misbehavior’. At the outset the authors propose that a range of deviant behaviours, including perversions, delinquency and addictions are rooted in attempts to deal with or ward off painful affect states or dysphoria. Contrary to the antipathy such cases more often engender, the authors of the book empathically explore how such behaviours split a person in two, abhorring or disavowing the part of self that needs to be deviant. The editor, Arnold Goldberg, and his collaborators display the heuristic value and utility of self-psychology in understanding such individuals.

The individuals described in this book of eight cases seek better ‘self-cohesion’ through their errant behaviours, but ultimately render