11 DECEMBER 1953, Page 29

THERE is something at once immediate and elusive in our

personal reactions to music and .painting, which has little to do with formal aesthetic valuation, although that may be invoked later to justify our prejudices. Mr. Ehrenzweig turns to psycho-analysis to explain this pre-logical type of perception, and illustrates his theme with Freudian "interpretations" of a wide variety of works, from Mantegna's "Dead Christ" to the cartoon figure of Chad. His thesis is provocative, and is clearly the product of alert listening and looking, as well as of strenuous thinking on his subject.

G. M. C.