Freud suggested that artistic inspiration derived from sexual frustration and a need to escape reality by inventing phantasy. Others maintain that the artistic impulse is an attempt to comprehend and integrate the external world and the artist's inner self. This problem is the central quest of Dr Storr's book. He examines a wide range of artists and thinkers and his revision of Freud's conception of art as wish-fulfilment and sublimation shows this controversial theory to be only partially valid.