Essential reading for both students and the general reader, this book clearly and creatively explains the core ideas of Freudian and psychoanalytic theory and enables the reader to contextualize and evaluate them. Can psychoanalysis be extended and built on to cover subsequent developments in psychology such as evolutionary theory? What moral and social implications does Freudian theory raise in relation to the problems confronting the contemporary world? The book discusses developments in psychodynamic theory over the past twenty years, and what these say about the significance and validity of Freud's ideas.