After study of Jones' biography of Freud, Purves concludes that Freud's work on anxiety, particularly Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety, was motivated in part by his own real and pressing anxieties. Purves cites biographical data to support his argument. He concludes that Freud's own anxiety accounts not only for some of the obscurities and contradictions in his work on anxiety but also for some of his insight into the problem. Purves reviews the developments of Freud's thoughts in the book with special emphasis on its contributions to structure theory.