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CONTENTS
Foreword by Neil Maizels click
here
Introduction
1 FreudÕs theory of art and
creativity
2 Essentials of Kleinian theory
3 The development of Kleinian
aesthetics
4 The legacy of Wilfred Bion
5 Ehrenzweig and the hidden order of
art
6 Art, creativity and the potential
space
7 Painting as the body: the
aesthetics of Fuller and Wollheim
Conclusion
Bibliography
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COVER
ENDORSEMENTS
This is a
book to which the attention of students of art theory and criticism, and
all those interested in the important application of psychoanalysis to
other fields of study, should be drawn.
Psychoanalytic
Aesthetics rethinks the classical account of the relation
between art and madness, creativity and psychoneurosis, and the distinction
between the primary and secondary processes. It covers a great deal of
ground and reviews many psychoanalytic writers (predominantly of the
British tradition) on aesthetics, as well as many of the aestheticians
using a psychoanalytic background.
It is well written and there is an impressive grasp of the many
writers covered.
More
than this, the book is also a work of psychoanalytic scholarship, being a
masterly overview of psychoanalytic schools of thought, and an in-depth
study of the British object-relations schools. It amply achieves its overriding goal to demonstrate
that the work of the British School presents a significant contribution to
psychoanalytic aesthetics and criticism, updating Freud, Kris and the
classical contributions to the field.
It is therefore potentially a very useful source book for future
scholars of both psychoanalysis and of aesthetics.
Robert
D. Hinshelwood, psychoanalyst and Professor, Centre for Psychoanalytic
Studies, University of Essex
It
is the unique emphasis on the aesthetic struggle within the infant mind
that places these British psycho-analytic thinkers in a class of their own,
where the theoretical cannot develop meaningfully unless it is anchored in
the Òsagacity of the bodyÓ - the partnership of body and mind, when the
head and the heart are working together - whose crucible is the new mother,
with her new child, developing and being developed by each other through
interplay.
Neil
Maizels, from the Foreword
When I was a student,
philosophy in America, as well as Britain, was dominated by British
Analytic Philosophy. To a degree this is still the case, but not as much as
it once was. One thing this philosophy did was insist upon very strict
boundaries. Many good discussions were brought to a halt by someone's
saying, "That's not philosophy; that's religion!" or "That's
not philosophy: that's psychology!" But it turns out we simply cannot
discuss Munch, or Hopper, or Picasso, while ignoring psychological
considerations. So Glover's very readable work is invaluable.
Elmer H. Duncan,
Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Baylor University, Waco, Texas
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