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Menninghaus et al. (2017) provide a valuable conceptual framework for considering the paradox of enjoying negative emotions in the arts. This is an important step, which lays out two interrelated processes – distancing and embracing – and addresses a much needed topic of aesthetics and, indeed, provides a number of valuable hypotheses that can and should be investigated in future empirical and theoretical research.
The model suggests that a certain pre-state of activating an art/aesthetic schema sets the stage for two sequential main processes: a “distancing factor,” which invokes, or we would argue, implies, existential safety and “control,” followed by a process of “embracing,” which presumably is the main component of interest – providing visual pleasure and intellectual or hedonic enjoyment of art – and would presumably coincide with the main aspects of “mastery” or “savoring” in most discussions of art experience (cf. Pelowski et al. 2016). Especially negative emotions are argued to be enjoyed if and only if at least one component (from several subfactors) of distancing in concert with one component of embracing is activated.
We agree, and it is indeed supported by literature (e.g., Berlyne 1970; Kant 1963/1790; or discussions about the sublime: Burke 1757; Ishizu & Zeki 2014), that intertwined processes of distancing and embracing might be a necessary precondition for better enjoyment of negative emotions. However, we also argue that – beyond noting that art enjoyment should involve striking some balance between psychological or bodily distance from and perceptual engagement with a stimulus –...