"What makes sports so compelling? Beyond the entertainment of watching the amazing physical and mental prowess of athletes as they compete, Marcus, a psychoanalytic psychologist, believes that each sport taken as totality of circumstances is a 'parable of life' that superbly depicts the existential challenges and dilemmas that ordinary people face as they attempt to fashion the 'good life.' By 'good life', following Freud, he means a life of deep and wide love, creative and productive work; one that is guided by reason and ethics and is aesthetically pleasing."