Aesthetic reaction and the catharsis concept in L.S. Vygotsky’s teaching

The article considers the main provisions of the conception of L.S. Vygotsky about the mechanism of aesthetic reaction as an emotional response to an art work, which is a specially organized system of stimuli. The conception of catharsis, a central link of the aesthetic reaction, is an emotional explosion as a result of the destruction of opposite affects caused by the contradiction between form and material in the structure of the work of art. The article outlines the criterion for distinguishing artistic emotions from ordinary ones through the connection of the former ones with the images of imagination, which enhance and resolve the emotional reaction caused by the work of art perception.