ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter I focused on the analysis of spectatorship with particular reference to Aristotle’s definition of tragic katharsis . By interpreting katharsis as transference dynamic between spectator and character, I suggested that spectatorship may imply, at an unconscious level, a form of self-analysis. The spectator’s emotional identification with the character through mimēsis is a vehicle for the arousal of his unprocessed emotions, repressed within his unconscious. Katharsis promotes a shift in the spectator’s mind from close identification to taking a sympathetic stance towards the character’s emotions, through which the spectator’s unconscious emotions are released from the mechanism of repression and become available for conscious thought, engendering self-awareness. In psychoanalysis, the transference dynamic arises within the emotional relationship between the patient and the analyst, and it is the analyst’s response to the patient which promotes the transformation of the re-enactment into self-awareness. Only when the analyst can maintain the patient’s unconscious affects within the psychic sphere, resisting ‘acting in’ and conveying their meaning through an interpretation, the submission of the patient to the compulsion to repeat will have an opportunity to be worked through into self-reflection and psychic development.
