Is perversion an emotion? Where do guilty feelings come from? What is the function of anxiety in the development of human personality? Freud died 60 years ago, his legacy the enigmatic language of psychoanalysis. But what are these terms really all about? On a Darkling Plain is a collection of vibrant essays exploring a selection of Freud's great terms, explaining their relevance to everyday life and their use in the understanding of our culture. Using a wide range of references to visual art, cinema, literature, popular culture and examples from real life, analysts and counsellors for whom these terms are part of everyday language explore why Freud is still the major thinker in the understanding of our emotions.