There is an intrepid quality to many of the fourteen psychoanalytic explorations collected in this volume. Roger Kennedy is an author who does not hesitate to take on large questions in psychoanalysis as he leads us through the thickets of his unusually varied clinical experience and his extensive readings in psychoanalysis and related fields (e.g. philosophy, neurobiology, literary criticism). Although he covers an impressive range of topics, there are a number of intersecting preoccupations that pervade each individual essay and provide a unifying quality to the collection. These themes include the development and vicissitudes of human