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The titles of all Marion Milner's books are most felicitous. This one—‘stolen’ (p. 295) from the philosopher and poet Santayana—will probably confront all analyst readers with the need to continue their self-analysis, come what may. And I hope it will result in many non-analysts reading it since Marion Milner shows herself in almost every chapter to be an author who writes most subtle psychological papers with a healthy ‘disinclination to use technical terms’ (p. 289). She is learned without the heaviness which that might convey. Much of what this book offers may seem, at first sight, deceptively direct and simple, but it soon becomes clear that working on her deepest preoccupations has produced a distilled excellence of writing from which she emerges as a superbly intelligent and a most ethical person who has mastered the art of thinking in pictures (‘I am one of those people who Freud reminded us exist, people who think in pictures’ (p. 246)—she wrote that in connection with describing the highlights of her contacts with Winnicott in matters of theory). There is also the fact, which is essential in appreciating these collected writings—arranged in