“On Aesthetic Empathy”
Photograph by John Diamond, M.D.
Empathy: identification with another’s feelings. (From the Greek pathos, feeling).
The German philosopher Theodor Lipps propounded a theory of aesthetic empathy: “Art appreciation depends on the viewer’s ability to project his personality into the object.”*
The therapeutic value of any work of art depends on the aspect of his personality he is encouraged by the object to project onto it.
And the more that aspect is of his mother’s Soul, the more therapy will he so derive. That is to say, the more he identifies with that Feeling of his mother.
* The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
