In this book Otto Weininger describes his conversations with young children and attempts to illustrate the manifestations of unconscious phantasy as they emerge within the context of very different settings such as playgroups, ordinary and special schools for disturbed children, the family milieu and play therapy. He uses Melanie Klein's theoretical and developmental formulations and explores the relevance of her insights into our work as parents, teachers and clinicians. Weininger himself created, and for eight years directed, a school for emotionally disturbed and educationally underachieving children and many of his examples come from children he helped within this setting. He vividly and convincingly shows how children experience unconscious phantasies as if they are really happening in reality and explains how the reality is altered by such phantasies as revealed by the child's ensuing behaviour. The descriptions show Weininger at his best, as a clinician of depth and sensitivity and one is impressed throughout the book by his compassionate