The author's book deals with a most neglected aspect of psychoanalysis - normality. Its chief concern is with the ordinary problems of upbringing which face all parents and the usual phenomena encountered by every clinician. Yet, though primarily practical and clinical in its approach, it also makes a major theoretical contribution to psychology.

Introduction , Foreword to the 1980 edition , The Psychoanalytic View of Childhood: Long-Distance and Close-Up , The Relations Between Child Analysis and Adult Analysis , The Assessment of Normality in Childhood , Assessment of Pathology Part I. Some General Considerations , Assessment of Pathology Part II. Some Infantile Prestages of Adult Psychopathology , The Therapeutic Possibilities