This is a magnificent book, both panoramic and encyclopedic in scope. It embraces the creation of a powerful 20th-century body of thought, psychoanalysis, that is presumedly the best and probably the most comprehensive and coherent system known for understanding the inner workings of the human mind. Although the roots of psychoanalytic thinking arise in antiquity, its modern metamorphosis is strikingly original and has become profoundly influential around the world in countless areas of human endeavor: the arts, literature, education, entertainment, advertising, human relations, war, and conflict resolution. Its specialized vocabulary has widely infiltrated everyday language in terms such as “the unconscious,” “the Oedipus Complex,” “projection,” “neurotic,” “ambivalent,” “passive-aggressive,” and “Freudian slip.”