Guilt and Its Vicissitudes focuses on the way Melanie Klein and successive generations of her followers pursued and deepened Freud's project of explaining man's moral sense as a wholly natural phenomenon.

'At one level, Hughes offers a historical account of guilt from Freud through its development and elaboration in the unique perspective of Klein and the British School. It is a work of meticulous scholarship that underscores the originality of Klein's thought. At another level, Hughes book speaks to the importance of agency that is increasingly under attack within postmodern thought (?) Read in this way, her survey is a cogent and timely response to those who regard the agency of conscience as superannuated.' - Ronald C. Naso, Psychologist - Psychoanalyst, Winter 2008