Art and Analysis: An Adrian Stokes Reader

This edition is an introductory selection from the writings of Adrian Stokes (1902-1972), the Kleinian aesthete who created a unique vision of the relation between psychoanalysis, art, and aesthetic experience in general. His approach was founded initially on his travels in Italy which then acquired a more formal theoretical foundation during his analysis with Melanie Klein. Stokes was a close friend of leading figures in both psychoanalytic and artistic-literary circles, including Richard Wollheim, who organized a previous edition of extracts, The Image in Form. The present edition concentrates specifically on the writing that demonstrates the parallels between art and psychoanalysis.

Meg Harris Williams is an artist and writer with a special interest in aesthetic experience. She collaborated with Donald Meltzer in The Apprehension of Beauty and The Claustrum. Her latest books on psychoanalysis and poetry are The Vale of Soulmaking and The Aesthetic Development.