Bridging the Black Hole of Trauma: The Evolutionary Significance of the Arts Part 2: The Arts and Evolution ‐ What is Art For?

Abstract

The second part of this two-part paper, originally written in the mid 1990s, continues to make the case that art has developed as a response to and a transformation of trauma. It discusses the mimetic and ritual sources of art, and the concept of catharsis, and relates artistic expression to neuroscientific work on the cerebral hemispheres. It concludes by discussing struggles and contradictions around the role of art in modern culture.