This book is an attempt to understand English society over the last seventy years, using a psychoanalytical perspective. It looks at the destabilising effect of war and other stresses, and the subsequent social reaction to such events. It contains an acknowledgment of the basic biology of the human race, and a plea that our given attributes be respected, particularly in the field of child nurture. The author is a long-term Quaker. That spiritual perspective is a background throughout.