This book reflects the author's admitted attraction to artists. One is impressed that he has had the opportunity to work clinically with such a large number and variety of creative personalities. These experiences have enriched the author's personal knowledge of artists' plight in and with society. He displays keen sensitivity to their economic frustrations, family problems, and their needs for recognition. He is particularly alert and responsive to their affective disturbances due to fallow phases, creative blocks, and self-doubts, and shares with his reader his personal approach in the therapeutic management of these patients.

Hatterer's justification for writing the book is claimed on the grounds that most past investigations of the artist have been either theoretical (rather than clinical) or applied studies based