Attachment System Involvement in Esthetic Response

Esthetic response appears to result from the interaction of specifiable forms of information processing (prototype approximation and non-habitual pattern recognition) with particular emotional or motivational systems, such as the endogenous reward system. One likely emotional component of such response is the object attachment or bonding system. Earlier essays have articulated a framework along these lines, but provided only limited support for the role of attachment. The present discussion article advances further explanatory advantages for an analysis of esthetic pleasure that includes attachment activation as a central component. In connection with this activation, this study takes up further research on neural correlates of the enjoyment of music and the medical outcomes of listening to music. The advantages of such an analysis also include an account of some philosophical observations about the nature of aesthetic response, specifically the orientation of esthetic feeling toward particular objects and the recurrence of certain preferred subjects for artistic depiction. These arguments suggest that the attachment system may play a significant role in esthetic response generally and even in some unexpected aspects of aesthetic response. At the same time, they raise further questions, for example questions concerning the mechanisms by which attachment system activation might operate in esthetic response.