In his study of Leonardo da Vinci, Freud famously discovered the psychological roots of the Mona Lisa and The Virgin and St. Anne in the artist's unusual childhood circumstances and in his fixation on his mother's smile. But Freud did not explore the ways in which Leonardo's bond with his mother affected either the formal qualities of his art or his need to create. Such investigations would have to await the writings of Melanie Klein, D. W. Winnicott, and the theorists who arose in their wake.

George Hagman in his Aesthetic Experience not only extends and deepens this object-relations approach to art, but adds a new perspective as a practicing self psychologist. His book is original in other ways as well. Unlike many psychoanalytic interpreters, he is concerned neither with the artist's conflicts nor the unconscious meanings