ABSTRACT
Adrian Stokes followed by likening the classical Greek concept of "balance between diverse aims and compulsions" to Melanie Klein's theory regarding the integration of the ego. Landscape, he claimed, like works of art, can counter defensive splitting of "sense impressions" and "thought processes" occurring in psychotic states of mind as described by his Imago Group friend, the psychoanalyst, Wilfred Bion. By then Stokes's likening of the integrating effect of art in terms of psychoanalysis and classical Greek culture had received a very hostile review from the novelist, Jean Howard. Architecture was hardly the strong point of the holiday home in Castleford in Cornwall where Stokes took the family on holiday the following summer, 1962. Despite his dislike of abstract expressionist painting, Stokes urged Telfer to use his connections with the art world as means of getting to know the New York based abstract expressionist painter, Barnett Newman.
