The artist speaks - Sigmund Koch on aesthetics and creative work

Sigmund Koch is widely recognized as a prime mover of the radical transform ation of psychology from a discipline dominated by behaviorism and related views to a multivalenced set of inquiries into human mentality and function ing. It is less widely remarked that Koch save aesthetic endeavors as stand ing at the center of human life and thus warranting psychologists' closest attention. Koch's interest in aesthetics and art making is evident in his w ritings from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s on different states of mind, th e notion of value properties, and the theory, of definition. Koch's study o f creative work in the latter decades of his life with artists of high acco mplishment was guided by a set of methodological :signposts for the study o f creative work, contains formulations relevant to contemporary psychoaesth etics, and generates significant questions for further inquiry.