The book examines how coevolved intraspecific aggression and appeasement gestures can give rise to complex social, cultural, and psychopathological phenomena. It argues that the individual's need regulate narcissistic supplies and maintain feelings of safety is the overriding determinant of human conduct and thought in mental health and illness.

This book, concerned with psychoanalytic conceptualisations, helps to lay the foundation for a biologically and evolutionarily sensible model of human social behaviour and personality, and also helps to bridge the gap between psychoanalysis and neuroscience.