Walter Benjamin and the homeopathic paradigm

This article explores Walter Benjamin’s theories on the therapeutic value of representations, revealing a homeopathic paradigm. Benjamin’s notions of psychic vaccination and training can be clarified through the debate on Aristotelian catharsis, which distinguished homeopathic («like cures like») and allopathic («opposite cures opposite») readings. While most scholars accept a homeopathic interpretation of classical catharsis, the principle is largely absent from modern aesthetics. Joachim Ritter explains the allopathic dimension of aesthetic experience, arising from the separation of veritas logica and veritas aesthetica. Autonomous art compensates for science’s limits but, as something external to life, cannot act homeopathically. By reintroducing a homeopathic dimension, Benjamin departs from traditional aesthetics of disinterestedness, reconceiving art in a mimetic and playful sense. He reimagines catharsis in relation to the shock effect of laughter, framing it as training of perception in the technological age. Finally, three case studies illustrate how contemporary audiovisual practices inherit and actualize Benjamin’s homeopathic model.