Social aesthetics and mental health

Abstract

Social aesthetics is an aesthetics of the social situation as it is lived and experienced. As humans we are always and every-where social beings, so the question no longer arises as to whether we live socially but rather how we live socially. This question of the How – how we experience and structure our life together – determines the core field of work and research in social aesthetics. European intellectual history teaches us that beauty is not just an adornment to life but is also a major source of strength for our life. Moreover, the positive aesthetic experience also has healing power. That beauty is a highly effective antidote to life’s suffering, i.e. acts as an “anti-depressant”. Social aesthetics that wishes also to be understood as the science of beauty in interpersonal relationships provides us with knowledge that in medical-therapeutic practice be-comes a key pillar of human-centered approaches to prevention and treatment.