A confidential conversation between an outstanding psychiatrist and each of us, with the average statistical representation of humanity, the “little man”; the book was written in 1946. A psychiatrist with many years of experience tells how he watched with horror what the “little man” does to himself: how he suffers and resists, how he exalts his enemies and kills his friends, how, having achieved power, he abuses it and makes it even more crueler than the one he overthrew. Reich encourages us to look at ourselves honestly, to realize that responsibility for our lives and for the enormous hidden potential inherent in the depths of human nature lies with each of us, and no one else.