Description
Book SynopsisPsychologist Ellen Winner studies the creative, nonliteral discourse of children's spontaneous speech, examining how their abilities to use and interpret figurative language change as they grow older, and what such language shows us about the changing feature's of children's minds.
Trade Review[T]here has not been such a book in years…[and] this book is extremely good. I would not be surprised if it became the standard text for courses on the psychology of art… Winner takes widely scattered studies and weaves them together very nicely, always keeping the theoretical issues clear. * Contemporary Psychology *
Knowledgeable, useful, and up-to-date… This is the most refreshingly readable book in psychology I have come across in a very long time. * Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism *
Ellen Winner draws together a vast array of research on creativity… The interested reader will find here an encyclopedia of issues in the field and an analysis of what is still unknown. * Psychology Today *
Ellen Winner’s handsomely printed
Invented Worlds does us all a tremendous favor by combining the two hitherto separate fields of the psychology and the developmental psychology of the arts in a general descriptive accounting. * Studies in Visual Communication *
An excellent introduction to what psychologists have to say about ‘the puzzle of art,’ including studies which view the problem ‘from above’ as well as ‘from below.’ The reader may pick and choose as his own personal preferences dictate. Since Fechner began the experimental study of aesthetics, a great deal has happened, and Ellen Winner is a safe guide to the large literature that has grown up since. There has not been a book summarizing all this work for many years, and the author is to be congratulated on having so successfully coped with a daunting task. -- H. J. Eysenck
A balanced and lucid presentation of current theories and findings in the field of art and psychology. The book provides a coherent framework for the examination of central issues in the psychology of art and in addition to offering an ‘overview,’ it also successfully formulates problems that are amenable to empirical investigation… Its clear presentation will make it a favorite for the student of psychology and the arts. -- Claire Golomb
This is
the book to read for a provocative and comprehensive survey of the psychology of the arts. The division of Winner’s theoretical sympathies, between Gestalt and constructivist viewpoints, males for an interesting tension and a questioning spirit throughout. -- Howard E. Gruber
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Puzzle of Art 1. Personality and Intellect 1. The Artist 2. The Audience 2. Painting 3. What's in a Picture? 4. The Untutored Eye? 5. The Development of Drawing 3. Music 6. The Sounds of Music 7. The Innovent Ear 8. The Birth of Song 4. Literature 9. The Literary Experience 10. Once upon a Time 11. First Drafts 5. Art and Abnormality 12. The Damaged Brain 13. Mental Illness Epilogue: Solving the Puzzle of Art Illustration Sources References Index
