This is a closely argued discussion of conceptual questions concerning unconscious wish, need, and desire. It relies heavily on the philosophical positions of Habermas and Ricoeur to delineate a view of the mixed nature of psychoanalytic discourse, as a combination of energic and hermeneutic explanations. It also attempts to delineate the manner in which unconscious instinctual urges acquire significance and can be understood in the course of psychoanalytic work.

Heim notes the tension between the accepted sciences and psychoanalysis, with its rebellious undercutting of the established order. Freud recognized this same conflict