Freud's reading of Hamlet's oedipal conflict is inconsistent with Shakespeare's demonstrable meaning and with the psychology of adolescence (in a way that Shakespeare's play is not). According to Freud, Hamlet's tragedy consists in his neurotic inability to say yes to his father and to murder. According to Shakespeare the tragedy lies in his neurotic inability to say no.

In this article, I propose a new theory of aesthetic response, based empirically on my own aesthetic experience. Waelder's structural model, especially his concept of the superego, provides a heuristically powerful metapsychological framework for this theory, a framework within which not only aesthetic response, but other important psychological phenomena not well covered by Freud's metapsychology (e.g. intentionality and consciousness) can be understood.