takes a fresh look at Sigmund Freud, countering his prevalent image as a thinker who pessimistically renounces the possibility of social, political, and cultural change. Abraham Drassinower contends that what is generally mistaken as Freud's pessimism is, on the contrary, the very standpoint from which Freud envisions an alternative to the cultural 'malaise' described in his works. As Drassinower argues that Freud's attentiveness to loss and death is part of a critical effort to envision alternatives to things as they are, he ably demonstrates that Freud deserves greater stature as a participant in the Western tradition of political philosophy.