The distinctive feature of Trauma and Mastery in Life and Art, and the reason it is illuminating and pleasurable, is the way it combines broad scope with living detail: it correlates unifying principles of aesthetic form in the arts, literature, music (for example, tension and release) with details of psychological and psychopathological attempts to master trauma. And vice versa: unifying principles in psychology and psychopathology (for example, turning passivity into activity) are correlated with the details of form in the various arts. Therefore, the book is as suitable for a survey course as for in-depth study, depending on a reader's inclination or a teacher's intent. Although of special value to those in the arts and/or psychology/psychiatry/psychoanalysis, the book is addressed to a general college or post-graduate level audience interested in the creative process. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.