Jannik Mosekjær Hansen defends his PhD thesis

Title

'Aesthetic empathy. An investigation of the experience of visual art in phenomenological psychology'.

Time and place

6th May 2022 at 1 pm (CET).

The defence will take place in Auditorium 1, The Faculty Library, Gothersgade 140, 1123 Copenhagen.

After the defence there will be a reception in the canteen (room 03.2.M202) at the Department of Psychology, Øster Farimagsgade 2A, 2nd floor, 1353 Copenhagen.  

Assessment committee

  • Professor Simo Køppe, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (chair)

  • Professor Ditte Alexandra Winther-Lindqvist, Aarhus University, Denmark

  • Professor Emeritus Frederick J. Wertz, Fordham University, United States

Supervisor

  • Associate Professor Tone Roald, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 

Abstract

This thesis sets out to investigate how empathy shapes experiences of visual art. Drawing on significant contributions made within empathy-aesthetics, philosophical and psychological phenomenology as well as empirical material the significance of empathy for our understanding of what makes visual art work is demonstrated. The thesis includes three articles. The first article is empirical. Based on 11 semi-structured interviews it presents a general structure of aesthetic empathy characterized by a sense of participating in a foreign subjective experience, positive feelings of connectedness and intimacy, and affective understanding. The second and third study are theoretical and present novel interpretations of central aspects of Theodor Lipps' theory of aesthetic empathy. The second study demonstrates that Lipps' concept ‘activity’ can be understood as affective co-constitution unfolding in the persons' interaction with the world. The third study investigates the ethical implications of aesthetic empathy. Based on Lipps' concept of ‘feeling of depth’ it is argued that aesthetic empathy involves an act of evaluation constitutive of value-awareness and an affective becoming of the spectator as an ethical person. Together these studies underline the importance of aesthetic empathy as well as its inherent affective, intersubjective, and ethical character.