No matter how arbitrary the classifications and evaluations of books may sometimes be, it is not coincidental that Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality by Sigmund Freud is almost always included in lists of those few books that have marked human thought and that since their appearance, things have definitely not been the same as before.

The intense discussion that followed the publication of this book, and all the rich literature that has emerged to date from the realm of psychoanalysis on the subject of sexuality, is merely commentary, modification, partial extension, or partial rejection of the basic Freudian theory, always referring back to Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]