In his writings, Rubinstein is essentially a philosopher of psychoanalysis. But this simple statement does not really capture the nature and quality of his work. Rubinstein is an analyst with many years of clinical experience, and his work on the conceptual status of psychoanalysis is written, so to speak, from the inside. The basic questions he poses are questions that arise in the course of clinical work (and that most of us slough over and ignore). But what he brings to this probing is a remarkable and sophisticated philosophical knowledge and style of thinking.