This essay is an attempt to reconcile the disturbing contradiction between the striving for order in nature and in man and the principle of entropy implicit in the second law of thermodynamics - between the tendency toward greater organization and the general trend of the material universe toward death and disorder.

"Arnheim was the best kind of romantic. His wisdom, his patient explanations and lyrical enthusiasm are those of a teacher." - New York Times

"The psychology of art is never as easy as a-b-c, but this book avoids the general obtuseness of such treatises. It will give your mind a good honing." - Art Direction

"Suitably unpretentious and fragmentarily brilliant in the interplay of elements from the author's vast reading and experience of experimental psychology."  - Leonardo