Psychological Study of the Arts explores literary questions using psychology, often psychoanalytic psychology. The materials collected here address such questions as, Why does this writer write the way he or she does? Why do different people read differently, as they do? How can we understand such-and-such a character or genre psychologically? They deal with the processes of perception, memory, word recognition, cognitive development, metaphor, and personal identity in both the creation and reading of literature. The concepts explored have natural extensions to media other than words on paper, to film, video, the visual arts, and so on.

Psychological Study of the Arts was formed from the core of writings by scholars of literature-and-psychology at the University of Florida, Dr. Norman Holland and Dr. Bernard J. Paris. It is a growing collection of electronic resources and full-text files, intended to grow to incorporate works on the topic and related topics regardless their author or the medium they study.