This book is an authoritative psychological study of the poet that supersedes Erich Simenauer's (1953) earlier psychological study, Rainer Maria Rilke: Legende und Mythos. Kleinbard proceeds slowly and carefully to lay out Rilke's psychological development, drawing importantly on such autobiographical works as The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge and Ewald Tragy , although all of Rilke's writings, including poems, critical essays, and letters, are used to explicate his life. Kleinbard relies strongly on the theories of Freud, as well as those of D. W. Winnicott, Heinz Kohut, Harold F. Searles, R. D. Laing, and Arnold H. Modell.

The Beginning of Terror is neatly divided between female and male influences, of which the female influences are much more important. Chapter 4 on Phia, Rilke's mother, is crucial. As a substitute for the daughter who had died before René—his original