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'By and large psychoanalytic interest in literature has run backward, from the work of art to its creator, whereas ours will flow forward, from the work of art to the reader.' The author's forward approach has given us the first systematic study of the universal appeal of fiction based on the interaction between the form and content of fiction and the reader's psychic needs and conflicts. Lesser utilizes his erudite knowledge of literature, literary criticism, and psychoanalysis in an engaging style devoid of pedantry. He demonstrates repeatedly that the psychological effects of a story can be analyzed without biographical knowledge of the writer (which is also unnecessary for artistic evaluation by artistic criteria).
The book's general excellence, with its abundant valuable insights, makes it difficult to indicate its best features. The 'clinical' demonstrations—for instance, detailed analyses of several stories—are matched in quality by the author's critique of artistic criticism and his theoretical explorations. Notable, for example, are the unusually lucid, brief expositions of the relations between form and content in the work of art and the ego-supporting function of formal elements in minimizing anxiety and resolving conflict.
My reservations about the book do not stem from substantial disagreement