This collection of essays, drawing together material from four countries, challenges many of the current trends in Shakespeare studies.The discussions of Shakespeare's plays and poems in this collection, by a range of academics, practising psychotherapists and the theatre director Jonathan Miller, discover many kinds of reference beyond the text: intuitable meanings, symbolisms inspired by the dark - undiscover'd - side of human relations, and characterizations of individual and group identities. The authors - Philip K. Bock, M. D. Faber, Jonathan Miller, Ruth Nevo, Angela Sheppard, B. J. Sokol and Lyn Stephens - are especially interested in the dynamics of emotional life. They variously bring to bear on Shakespeare's texts knowledge of theatrical practice, social history, anthropology, theology, political history, art history and other disciplines.The editor contributes an introduction which claims the importance of psychological and psychodynamic understanding for the progress of literary studies. The volume also contains a bibliography of psychoanalytic and psychological Shakespeare studies. The volume also contains a bibliography of psychoanalytic and psychological Shakespeare studies in English from 1979 - 1989, which will prove invaluable to those already familiar with the two previous ten-year bibliographies in the field. - from Amzon