Art And Psychoanalysis (Icon Editions) [Paperback]

Laurie Schneider Adams (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0064302067 | ISBN-13: 978-0064302067 | Publication Date: August 15, 1994

A pioneering overview of art and psychoanalysis that shows how each field can enrich and enlarge the other.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The application of psychoanalytic concepts to the interpretation of works of art has been a continual--and continually controversial--intellectual enterprise since Freud's 1910 study of Leonardo. The author, an academic art historian and practicing psychoanalyst, is well qualified to "present an overview of the interdisciplinary potential of art and psychoanalysis and to demonstrate that each field can enrich and enlarge the other." The book is admirably evenhanded, pointing out misinterpretations of both analysts (who generally err by assigning cultural characteristics to personal quirks of artists) and historians (who have often falsely accused psychobiographers of reducing creative genius to mere neurosis). While not a primer of Freudian thought, the book is well within the grasp of the informed lay reader. For academic libraries and public libraries that serve a well-educated clientele.
- Mary Ann Hughes, Neill P.L, Pullman, Wash.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

Students of art history have become increasingly interested in new methodologies, and this book serves as an introductory guide to the interactions of the two disciplines in western art.  Because so few people have been trained in both fields, there has been little reliable material available on the subject..... There are chapters on Freud's Leonardo Controversy, art and the oedipus complex, dreams, delusions, Michelangelo's Moses, the mother-child relationship, the primal scene, psychobiography, and aesthetics.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press (August 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064302067
• ISBN-13: 978-0064302067
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,028,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laurie Schneider Adams received her Phd in art history from Columbia University. She is professor emerita at John jay College, CUNY, where she taught art history for 45 years. At the CUNY graduate center she taught Italian Renaissance art, art and psychoanalysis, methodologies of art, and artists' biographies. She is also a psychoanalyst in private practice. With Allison Coudert she coauthored five children's books about girls at a private school in New York. With Maria Grazia Pernis, she coauthored a book on Lucrezia Tornabuoni, the mother of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and the Medici family as well as a study of the lives and of Federico da Montefeltro of Urbino and Sigismondo Malatesta of Rimini. With Jacques Szaluta she co-edited Psychoanalysis and the Humanities, a collection of essays on art, literature, history, and psychoanalysis.
Adams has published widely in the field of art history, including introductory text books and books on methods of artistic analysis, art and psychoanalysis, and the Italian Renaissance.
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book, March 28, 2006

By 

Baird Jones (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Art And Psychoanalysis (Icon Editions) (Paperback)

Art and Psychoanalysis is a terrific read which combines scholarly commentary and a lively witty tone. Specialists will find plenty of information scattered throughout while the novice will not be overwhelmed by esoteric terms. This book is helped by several brilliant contributions by Bradley Collins to be found in the footnotes. This is one of the best summary type books in a field which is often disappointing.