"The examination of psychological aspects of literature ranges over various periods of time and techniques of authorship. An introduction on the format and intention of this collection precedes a basic introduction on the significance and development of psychological approaches in literature. The main text is a selection of essays that examine topics such as the focus on psychology in the critical examination of literature, evolutionary psychology (i.e., how humans first developed psychologically), cognitive psychology, crowd psychology, and psychological scholarship. The discussions examine such aspects as misogyny, familial relationships, suicide, empathy, depictions of the mentally ill, etc., with Freud and Freudianism being the main influence, but also considering the theories of others such as Jung and Lacan. The last section looks at the mythical and folkloric characteristics of popular characters, such as those found in the Star Wars series, and in the overall story development, such as in the Harry Potter series. Each essay ends with a brief bibliography and, in some cases, endnotes. A chronology of developments in the study of psychology, additional bibliographies, information about the editor and the contributors, a glossary, and an index complete the volume. The essays offer an interesting, informative, well-researched array of material, with some black-and-white illustrations."