Building on her numerous earlier works in the field, Laurie Schneider Adams has produced this exemplary interdisciplinary study. The book is rich in the range of its contents and is illuminated by psychoanalytic insights. The author's sweep of research is wide, as she covers the significant eras of Western art, including antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the modern period.

Adams demonstrates how psychoanalysis enriches our understanding of art. She surveys controversies over interpretations and methodology among art historians and psychoanalysts, and notes