In this essay, I take up concepts raised in papers in the three issues of Psychoanalytic Inquiry edited by Diana Diamond and Sidney Blatt. To give coherence to my discussion, I consider the many subjects covered (often several in one paper) under the headings of Mothering, Representation, Trauma and Pathology, and Therapeutic Change and Its Measurement. I focus throughout on the relevance of findings to the outlook of a clinician, at times providing examples based on my experience as an analyst to further elucidate my conceptualizations.