The Absorbed Self

In descriptions of experiences of art, a central and recurring theme is that people seem to become something other than themselves when viewing a painting or listening to poetry or music. Yet, despite its key importance, there has never been a sustained description and analysis of aesthetic absorption by either psychologists or philosophers. This text uses an interdisciplinary approach to revive the use of a pragmatic philosophy of self and aesthetic experience, and fuses it with current work in social and developmental psychology.