This book, writen by a psychoanalyst and a teacher, is directed toward a 'psychoanalytically oriented public' and aims to present in nontechnical language 'some of the theories we owe to the work of Melanie Klein, and to show both how they are repeatedly borne out in the day-to-day behavior of children, and how helpful some knowledge of infantile fantasies can be from a practical point of view'.

The book is excellently written and is illustrated by the fantasies of children at successive stages of libidinal development. The lucid descriptive details, which include numerous accounts of verbal fantasies and play activities, are valuable as direct observations of child behavior. However, the strong emphasis on Kleinian theory opens the door to controversy and may be confusing to the lay