An invitation to write, to play, to be affected, to be permissive in taking note: all these gestures of freedom compose . Britzman opens the crypt of research to and finds the perils and pleasures of narrating life in the human professions. It is at once an introduction to psychoanalytic theories of everyday education and a guide to perplexed learning. Each chapter considers the situation of pedagogy through the dream of education and analyzes learning through its emotional experiences and passions. New attention is given to aesthetic conflicts made from trying to know intersubjective life. Topics include studies of inhibition, sexuality, aggression and depression, the problems of sexual enlightenement, the uses of free association and the transference, and the play between creativity and anxiety.