"There is something essentially elusive about our subjective life, which makes it difficult to capture", writes Roger Kennedy at the beginning of this important book. From this position of uncertainty, Kennedy pursues his exploration of how we can gain access to the human subject, not only through what we experience as individuals but also through the multiple and complex interactions between individuals in the social field. The clinical setting provides a unique opportunity for understanding the enigmas of subjectivity. The issue of psychical reality, central to this book, concerns, whether or not it makes sense to locate the subject in the individual, in the social field, or in some shifting position involving both the individual and the social. Kennedy argues for the more complex approa