This book is to my knowledge the first monograph concerning the relationship between psychoanalysis and music; it sets out to define the essential nature of music using psychoanalytic concepts. The book consists of essays written by the author in the last few years, some of which have been published in renowned journals. There is nevertheless a unity to it because the texts both build on and complement each other so as to enable us to reconstruct the way in which Leikert's thoughts on this subject have developed. The book also reads as a complete work in its own right because