This book reconsiders the role of fantasies in psychic life. It shows how fantasies, surfacing partially at times into consciousness, but predominantly unconscious, play a much more pervasive role in psychological life than is traditionally acknowledged. In particular, Dr. Kenneth Levin demonstrates how early experiences engender persistent fantasies of desired nurturing, and that these fantasies provide the motivation to all of life's subsequent endeavors as well as play a central role in later psychopathology. The perspectives offered in the book, comprising both a reformulation of psychodynamic theory and a consideration of the reformulated theory's clinical implications and applications, represent a substantive addition to the armamentarium of psychodynamic psychotherapy.