the delight of unpleasantness

"Why would we get such delight from unpleasantness?"

that's a question i came across in a NY Time issue, some days after i watched a disturbing thriller, even though i knew i would be alone here for 2 days, and thrillers don't make for soothing night times. still i kept watching.

here's a passage of the essay, with one of the possible answers:

"We are drawn to horror and tragedy because they are creative representations of worst-case scenarios, situations that we really need to worry about, such as being attacked by strangers, betrayed by friends, experiencing the death of those we love, and so on."

here the link to the article: The Long and Short of It, by Paul Bloom (NY Times, Sept '09)

(this article partly motivated the idea of creating a BluePrintReview (dis)comfort issue, and triggered the idea for the title, more about the incidents that lead to this theme, in 'about this issue').
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