Aesthetic experience.
- PubMed: 18290795
Abstract
An initial clinical question, 'Why does an analysand talk about his/her relationship with an aesthetic object?' opens an investigation into the nature of aesthetic experience. Three principal aspects of the psychoanalytic approach are presented: sublimation, a Freudian concept concerning the vicissitudes of the drives; reparation, a Kleinian concept linked to depressive anxiety; and transformation, a concept of object-relations theory about primitive ego-states. The article discusses the psychic function of aesthetic feelings in mastering anxiety as related to ego, id and superego. The transformation of the experience of passivity is a common link underlying these aspects. Such transformation relies on tolerating ambiguous and contrary feelings within the self, fostered by contact with an aesthetic object. This balance can, however, be upset: two excessive forms of aesthetic experience ensue, namely, fascination and bewitchment. The first belongs to the experience of awe; the second can lead to claustrophobic anxiety. The initial clinical question requires an elaboration of aesthetic transference, a variant of the narcissistic transference, whereby the analysand invites the analyst to share his/her internal state as a common unspoken object.
Aesthetic experience.
Though long considered the most essential of aesthetic concepts, as includ-
ing but also surpassing the realm of art, aesthetic experience has in the last
half-century come under increasing critique.
The aim of Aesthetic Experience is to re-examine the notion of aesthetic
experience as well as its value. This is achieved by bringing together major
voices that have directly theorized the concept of aesthetic experience or
indirectly worked on topics connected to it.
With contributions from an internationally respected group of authors, this
book will be useful to philosophers everywhere, particularly those working
on aesthetics.
Richard Shusterman is the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the
Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Florida Atlantic University, USA.
Adele Tomlin is an independent scholar who completed an M.A. in Philosophy
at Kings College, London. She is currently pursuing studies in Buddhist
Philosophy in India and Nepal.
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