Based on the author's case histories, this book gives an account of key moments in women's lives and sexuality: the turbulent changes of adolescence; the conflicts of pregnancy; childbirth, abortion and infertility; the challenges of the menopause and old age. Central to these papers is an examination of the way in which the unconscious life of the mind expresses itself through a woman's body and, conversely, the way the body's experiences impinge upon the mind.