Chaplin's article is a serious, but only partially successful attempt to deal psychoanalytically with Shakespeare's King Lear and the æsthetic problem of dramatic form. The author is interested in the psychology of dramatic form—that is, in the way in which unconscious as well as conscious motive 'shapes particular forms of enactment' in King Lear. He is also concerned with clarifying the unconscious motives expressed in the dramatic form of the play. These he discovers to be an unconscious or latent incestuous urge in Lear for his daughters, especially for Cordelia. And, he argues, the imagery, character, and action of the play—if examined for what lies concealed behind them—confirm such a reading. They undoubtedly do, but to stop here (as this author does) is to distort or reduce Lear to a man who is solely motivated by unresolved Oedipal strivings. Given the complexity, mystery, and immensity of the play, this is psychological reductionism with a vengeance.