Imagination, empathy, and dissociation in individual response to negative emotions in music

Our attraction to negative emotions in aesthetic contexts is a paradox which has puzzled philosophers at least since the time of Aristotle. In non-aesthetic contexts, positive emotions stimulate approach behaviors, while negative emotions are associated with escape, attack, or freezing behaviors, for example functioning so as to cause us to flee from a situation that has the potential for danger (Barlow and Durand 2005, 57). In an aesthetic context, however, the opposite can occur: rather than avoiding music which makes them feel sad, some people appear to be attracted to music or other art forms expressing negative emotions. As David Hume says, "[t]hey are pleased as they are afflicted, and never so happy as when they employ tears, sobs and cries to give bent to their sorrow" ("On Tragedy," cited by Clark 2002, 222).