I found this a thought-provoking book. It raises fundamental questions about our analytic assumptions and aims at a time when there is much controversy about both theory and practice. I should say here that when Plaut talks about analysis, he is referring to both Jungian and Freudian analysis. In exploring the two questions: What is analysis about? Can it be analysed? Plaut discusses a wide range of issues which he subsumes under the headings text, context and matrix. The text is the body of analytic theory; the context is the cultural, social and administrative settings in which analysis is practised; the matrix is the psychological ‘birth place’ of theories; this includes such issues as faith in change, the universal longings of human beings to find a panacea to suffering in absolute and/or Utopian answers, and the passion with