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In a book of popular orientation the author sets out to tackle the question of the essential nature of the artistic gift, of what makes great art. This is a bold enterprise, and if he succeeds in adding some original views of his own to an adequate and relevant summary of existing views on the psychology of the artist and of art he is to be congratulated. Dr. Schneider does both of these.
His main theme is that the artist's work is the precursor and equivalent of that of the psycho-analyst. The artist is also the interpreter of unconscious themes. With this he formulates something more explicit than has been implied by the phrase 'The artist is in touch with his unconscious'. He shows—notably in a study of Oedipus Rex—how the artist consciously or unconsciously provides specific interpretations of the unconscious material he presents. He continues by developing the thesis that the relationship of the public to the artist is analogous to a transference-relationship. In a drama, for instance, by means of identification with the protagonists, the members of the audience submit their fantasies to the dramatist for interpretation, and are thereby made more aware of the contrast between these fantasies and reality. Some of this may have been implicit in views generally held; Dr. Schneider has certainly elaborated it.
If the artist is primarily an interpreter, it is his style, or the form he gives to the basic contents, which becomes the hallmark of artistic achievement. Dr. Schneider attacks the problem from an original angle. Taking a clue from Freud's remarks in his book on Wit on the relationship between physical motions and their quantitative psychic reflection, Dr. Schneider links the problem of artistic form with the ablity to capture physical motion and reflect it in the operations of the psychic economy. It is this power which gives a work of art its quality of aliveness. It is through this capacity that the artist unites motion with emotion. This is a