▨ necessary distance

drama:

"the separation of the hemispheres [...] enabled us to build on that ‘necessary distance’ from the world and from ourselves,
[...] example of this is the fascinating rise of drama in the Greek world, in which the thoughts and feelings of our selves and of others are apparently objectified, and yet returned to us as our own. A special sort of seeing arises, in which both distance and empathy are crucial." p. 262

"The very fact of having a philosophy at all was one of the many changes to be brought about by the advent of necessary distance. Drama, at least as conceived by the Greeks, is another" p. 272

"the gods approach us; or as we begin to approach them, when we stand back in ‘necessary distance’ from our world through sacred drama." p. 288

"feeling binds us together, and, more than that, actually unites us, since the feelings are shared. Yet the paradox is that those feelings only arise because of our distinctness, our ability to be separate, distinct individuals, that come, that go, in separation and death.
Drama has come to the fore at those points in history when we have achieved ‘necessary distance’, when we have been sufficiently detached to be looking at one another, but not yet so detached that we are inappropriately objective about, or alienated from, one another." p. 303

More:

See 7 connections with frontal lobes