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Waelder's monograph is divided into two parts: Part I— Aspects of Aesthetic response in which the Id, Ego and Super ego approach to art are discussed. Part II—The Situation of the Arts in the Contemporary World. The author points out that art products stem from psychic domains fraught with conflict as opposed to those which are relatively conflict-free.
A distinction is made between the beauty of natural objects and the beauty of artifacts. “The rendering of things that are unattractive and even repellent may be beautiful in terms of art.” One approach to the concept of beauty is to consider the beauty of configurations in terms of patterns of tension and discharge and to view the pleasure derived from beauty as a psychophysiological process, a theory still not completely formulated. The step from pleasure to unpleasure through over-excitation or under-excitation not only applies to sexual pursuits but to the appreciation of the sensuality of beauty as well. The relationship between pleasure and tension changes with experience—for example, the development of taste for dissonant music. Development may actually lead to a reversal of taste. “The taste for the sweet in childhood … is replaced in adulthood by a taste for the bitter and this may secondarily lead to a social valuation so that the bitter becomes a symbol of adult sophistication.”