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On January 1, 1896, Sigmund Freud wrote to his friend, Wilhelm Fliess, "I can see how, via the detour of medical practice, you are reaching your first ideal of understanding human beings as a physiologist, just as I most secretly nourish the hope of arriving, via these same paths, at my initial goal of philosophy."1 Sharing Freud's interests, Ernest Wallwork, who is a philosopher and psychoanalyst, has written an important and remarkable book, Psychoanalysis and Ethics. In his book Wallwork takes us on a philosophical and psychoanalytic journey that illuminates our understanding of both ethics and psychoanalytic theory. Although he states that his primary aim in writing the book is "to work out precisely some of the ways in which psychoanalysis is ethically relevant" (p. 5), that statement does not fully capture the innovative features of this book and its value to philosophers and psychoanalysts.
Wallwork begins by wondering whether we understand what Freud said on psychological matters that relate to morality, and he states that he wants to explore how psychoanalytic findings relate to