One of Freud's central achievements was to demonstrate how unacceptable thoughts
and feelings are repressed into the unconscious, from where they continue to ex
ert a decisive influence over our lives. This volume contains a key statement ab
out evidence for the unconscious, and how it works, as well as major essays on a
ll the fundamentals of mental functioning. Freud explores how we are torn betwee
n the pleasure principle and the reality principle, how we often find ways both
to express and to deny what we most fear, and why certain men need fetishes for
their sexual satisfaction.
