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The author takes up Freud's sexual theory and examines several key issues—narcissism, infantile sexuality, heterosexuality, and gender—in order to reassert the radical aspects of Freud's epistemology. These areas are explored in two broad and interrelated themes, which are characterized loosely as a genealogy of morals and a philosophy of the will to power. Although this moves substantially beyond the formulations used by Freud, the underlying issue in all this material is the problem of value, and the author demonstrates the truly radical arc of Freud's thinking in the way he addresses value in his sexual theory.
To say we cognize external objects is contradictory; it is impossible for man to go outside of himself. Where we believe we see objects, we see only ourselves. We can actually know nothing of the world except ourselves and the changes that occur within us. Contrary to what we commonly say, we cannot possibly feel for others; we feel only for ourselves. The proposition sounds harsh, but it is not when properly understood. It is neither father nor mother, neither wife nor child that we love, but only the pleasant emotions they occasion—something that flatters our pride and self-love. (Lichtenberg, 1784-1788/2012, p. 102)