An apt subtitle to Dr. Parens' book might well read: an attempt at reformulating the metapsychology of aggression by placing it in the context of Mahler's contributions.

In the Introduction, after asking a number of valuable questions concerning the epigenesis of aggression in the first three years of life, e.g., does hostility emerge spontaneously or does it require the precondition of frustration, the author traces the vicissitudes of what he terms “unpleasure-related discharge of destructiveness.” These “discharges” occur within the first three months of life through the “symbiotic phase,” then through the subphases of separation-individuation. He maintains that hostile aggression does require excessive pain and pleasure.

Dr. Parens' developmental approach suffers from a problem common to psychoanalysis: the attribution of mental content typical of adult experience