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This book deals with the vicissitudes of desire (the word French analysts use instead of Strachey's "wish") in various cultures, religions, and philosophies.
It begins with an old Celtic myth about an island whose visitors enjoy indescribable bliss and avoid old age and death. It is a regresso ad uterum. Those who get homesick and return to the mainland immediately change into dust, because several centuries have gone by without their being aware of it. This myth, according to the author, describes the two main paths of desire: one is a blissful