A distinguished figure in psychoanalysis, Leonard Shengold is the author of a number of publications detailing his extensive clinical practice. In particular, he is well known for his conception of soul murder (the consequence of early trauma or severe deprivation) as a pervasive element in the histories of severely troubled patients—and, indeed, of many sufferers who do not or cannot benefit from psychoanalytic therapy. The present collection of essays covers a wide spectrum of personal experience, ranging from an unusual measure of autobiography (unusual for a psychoanalyst, that is) to exercises in literary criticism, opera, and classical philosophy—revealing him to be a diversified scholar as well as a humane therapist, all in the Freudian tradition.

Much of the author's attention is devoted to description of the normal developmental process from birth (or even earlier) through early narcissism, fostered ideally by the infantile relationship with the mother at her breast, followed by the process of separation-individuation