Lust is arguably the most basic of human desires. It determines much of our behavior and our culture, but is it understood? Building on his groundbreaking work in Ecstasy and Rage, Michael Eigen confronts lust, mining the history of psychology and religion as well as the literary depths of the Symposium, the Iliad, and the book of Genesis. He also takes us into his own sessions as a psychoanalyst to show how lust expresses itself in the daily lives of real people. This comprehensive and accessible account of a still-taboo subject includes lust's inescapable ties to reproduction and its ultimate resolution in death. The author uses contemporary and historical examples to show how lust is simultaneously a positive force and potentially destructive. In championing the life-affirming aspects of lust, Eigen's conclusions are thought-provoking, illuminating, and ultimately healing.