This book provides the scope and complexity of Freud's contributions and emphasizes the wide proliferation of the Lacanian approach. It describes psychoanalytical theories, and is helpful for the readers as a stimulus to independent investigation and critical thought.

Introduction -- The Work of Sigmund Freud -- Mind and nature: the context of Freud's work -- Freud, Breuer, and hysteria: the cathartic method -- The very core of nature: the beginnings of psychoanalysis -- Screens and seductions: the rise and fall of the seduction theory -- Sweet dreams: Freud's topographical model -- Sex from the inside: Freud's theory of sexuality -- Illusion and reality: transference and psychoanalytic technique -- The psychology of the "I": Freud's ego psychology -- Psychoanalysis after Freud -- Enfant terrible: Wilhelm Reich in Vienna -- New positions: Kleinian psychoanalysis -- Winnicott in transition: a British Independent -- Self and object in America: the American Object Relations School and self psychology -- Grünbaum shakes the foundations: criticism from the philosophy of science -- Langs's raw message: communicative psychoanalysis -- Coda