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| Research article summary (published 30 May 2002): |
The sense of beauty.
Full Abstract
This paper proposes an integrative psychoanalytic model of the sense of beauty. The following definition is used:
beauty is an aspect of the experience of idealisation in which an object(s), sound(s) or concept(s) is believed to possess qualities of formal perfection. The psychoanalytic literature regarding beauty is explored in depth and fundamental similarities are stressed. The author goes on to discuss the following topics:
(1) beauty as sublimation:
beauty reconciles the polarisation of self and world; (2) idealisation and beauty:
the love of beauty is an indication of the importance of idealisation during development; (3) beauty as an interactive process:
the sense of beauty is interactive and intersubjective; (4) the aesthetic and non-aesthetic emotions:
specific aesthetic emotions are experienced in response to the formal design of the beautiful object; (5) surrendering to beauty:
beauty provides us with an occasion for transcendence and self-renewal; (6) beauty's restorative function:
the preservation or restoration of the relationship to the good object is of utmost importance; (7) the self-integrative function of beauty:
the sense of beauty can also reconcile and integrate self-states of fragmentation and depletion; (8) beauty as a defence:
in psychopathology, beauty can function defensively for the expression of unconscious impulses and fantasies, or as protection against self-crisis; (9) beauty and mortality:
the sense of beauty can alleviate anxiety regarding death and feelings of vulnerability. In closing the paper, the author offers a new understanding of Freud'semphasis on love of beauty as a defining trait of civilisation. For a people not to value beauty would mean that they cannot hope and cannot assert life over the inevitable and ubiquitous forces of entropy and death.
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Author information
Author/s: Hagman, George (G);
Affiliation: gahagman@optonline.net
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Journal Article
Journal: The International journal of psycho-analysis (Int J Psychoanal), published in England. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2002-Jun; vol 83 (issue Pt 3) : pp 661-74
Dates: Created 2002/06/28; Completed 2002/08/28; Revised 2004/11/17;
PMID: 12088563, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
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