Includes bibliographical references (pages 180-182) and index.
1. The characters of psychoanalysis -- 2. Sexual epiphany -- 3. Sexuality and its transformations -- 4. In the beginning is the mother -- 5. Erotising absence -- 6. Functions of the father -- 7. The seduction of the story -- 8. Hot and cold -- 9. Showing off -- 10. Self as theatre -- 11. The malignant hysteric -- 12. Transference addicts -- 13. Seduction and the therapist -- 14. The last chapter.