The author, a leading figure in contemporary psychoanalytic theory, deplores the absence of sexuality and the erotic from current psychoanalytic theory and practice. Instead, he demonstrates how human sexuality forms an 'erotic chain'. The work of analysis, he argues, consists in following the dynamic movements of the erotic process, by ascertaining its links with other aspects of the psyche. The author re-visits many previously neglected or ignored areas of psychoanalytic debate, including the complicated relationship between pleasure and reproduction, and the links between psychoanalysis, anthropology, and biology. He also embarks on extensive and radical re-readings of Klein, Winnicott, Lacan, and other major psychoanalytic thinkers.