This book is above all a paean to Freud's writing genius. It is as well a complex study of the dynamics of the Wolf Man, a longitudinal view of the history of the case and all the analysts involved, and a look at the dynamics and countertransferences of Freud and Brunswick. Finally it offers, through linguistics, a new approach to the understanding of the style, content and dynamics of Freud and his patient.

On the premise that any personality theory is rooted in the psychology of its author, Mahony has treated Freud's writings as oneiric traces and free associations to be analysed. In this he acts truly as an analyst who pays heed to content and to form. To the exegesis Mahony brings his knowledge of writing, German and linguistics.

He returns to the German text to show that Strachey has occasionally distorted form and content for countertransferential reasons. He suggests that several analysts ought to attempt translations of Freud's works so as to offer us a chance to understand, by comparing them, the