This extraordinary and fascinating text is the fruition of many years' work by a large group of European psychoanalysts who set themselves the task of determining what goes on when a psychoanalyst practises psychoanalysis: what is it that makes it psychoanalytic, especially given the considerable conflicts in the analytic world about what is and what is not ‘proper’ analysis? What could have been an insular activity with no real relevance to anything beyond the psychoanalytic world turned into a deeply