Kristeva suggests that the antidote to xenophobia, racism and other weapons against outsiders is to recognize that "the foreigner is within us." [The book] demonstrates her amazing command of history, politics, literature, linguistics, and psychology...argues powerfully for a radical examination of self, beginning with the realization that what is most fearful to us in the stranger may be the very quality we do not want to recognize in ourselves. Only through this reconciliation with our estranged self, Kristeva asserts, can we begin to give fair treatment to others.– "San Fransisco Examiner-Chronicle"