This is a candid portrait of the struggles of the author - the granddaughter of Sigmund Freud - in her own life. Blessed and cursed with a famous family, she has negotiated her way from a blissful Viennese childhood to Paris, Radcliffe College and her present-day teaching, writing and lecturing career. The book offers the reader a level of intimacy and empathy with the writer who is frank about her experiences of love, passion, failure and other things.