Augustine of Hippo, a central figure in the history of Western thought, is also the author of a theory of reading that has had a profound influence on Western letters from the ages of Petrarch, Montaigne, Luther, and Rousseau to Freud and the late 20th century. In the union of philosophy, psychology, and literary insights that forms the basis of Augustine's theory of reading, the reader emerges as the dominant model of the reflective self. Brian Stock provides an account of this theory within the evolution of Augustine's early dialogues, his "Confessions", and his systematic treatises.