Why do we wish to remake the world? Why do we wish to destroy the cultural products of the generation that has come before us? Why do we reject coherence and rationality in favor of personality and illusion? The pull is great and disastrous, inevitably; and the pleasures are undeniable. How do we climb out of the great muck to the hard light of reality? And why should we? Is sublimation possible? Ideal? How we do love, how and why do we create? Chasseguet-Smirgel examines these questions with great clarity, moral purpose, and beauty.