In this fascinating and speculative article, the author attempts to enlarge on Freud's analysis of Michelangelo's statue of Moses. Kavka attributes the very prominent use of the forefingers in the artist's statues to the sculptor's fixations in the pregenital stage of his development. He bases his thesis on 1) Michelangelo's premature separation from his wet nurse; 2) the death of his mother when he was six, and 3) the fact that his foster father was a stone-cutter. He thus considers the "claw chiseling into marble" as constituting "a regression of creativity in the service of the ego." These arguments are quite persuasive, but the author's bringing in some of Kohut's ideas to reinforce his position is not helpful.