catharsis
the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.
Medicine/Medical. purgation.
Psychiatry.
psychotherapy that encourages or permits the discharge of pent-up, socially unacceptable affects.
discharge of pent-up emotions so as to result in the alleviation of symptoms or the permanent relief of the condition.
Origin of catharsis
1Other words from catharsis
- hy·per·ca·thar·sis, noun
Words Nearby catharsis
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use catharsis in a sentence
Beabadoobee is at her best when she sounds like a friend shouldering your emotional baggage, translating heartbreak and disappointment into true catharsis.
Beabadoobee wants to show you she’s more than a viral TikTok song | Anying Guo | October 29, 2020 | Washington PostIn Aristotle’s Poetics, he argues that catharsis is the central effect of great drama—a feeling of purgation and reawakening forged from a deep link between the audience and the protagonist.
Movie theaters are the best environment for catharsis, but they need to respond to shifts in attitudes and taste.
Flanagan seems to rely on emotional catharsis to divert audiences from the way his plots tend to collapse onto themselves in the finale.
Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor is a calm, loving study in how to exorcise your ghosts | Aja Romano | October 9, 2020 | VoxYour emotions find catharsis in the opera—circumspectly, in the darkness.
People for whom a game that openly invites such jokes is a liberating catharsis.
The Case Against Cards Against Humanity: Is Max Temkin a Horrible Person? (Does It Matter?) | Arthur Chu | July 29, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTListen closely enough, and you can hear a bit of emotional catharsis.
Jennifer Lopez’s ‘A.K.A.’ Is Terrible. What Happened to Her Music? | Kevin Fallon | June 17, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBut I always feel that making the film is the catharsis that stops the nightmares, if you will.
James Cameron on How to Find Flight MH370, Climate Change, Leonardo DiCaprio, and More | Marlow Stern | April 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTEncountering such exaggerations on the page serves as a kind of catharsis, and provides a kind of perspective.
Lifetime’s ‘Flowers in the Attic’ Review: The Incest Is There, The Strange Magic Is Not | Andrew Romano | January 16, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIf crying is the holy grail of therapeutic catharsis, I am clearly failing.
‘LA Shrinks’: A Television Writer Discovers His Shrink Is on a Bravo Reality Show | Mike Chessler | April 8, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTHe however refers only to the catharsis upon the spectator, but not to that of the author's work upon himself.
The Literature of Ecstasy | Albert MordellHe had no sympathy with the poetry that had a social message and he did not understand its effect as a catharsis.
The Literature of Ecstasy | Albert MordellThe bowels should be kept open by some mild catharsis, as castor oil or a pill of aloes.
The Ladies Book of Useful Information | AnonymousHer simple faith in immanent good was working upon his mind like a spiritual catharsis, to purge it of its clogging beliefs.
Carmen Ariza | Charles Francis StockingDoses of from two to ten grains may be repeated at suitable intervals until catharsis has been produced.
British Dictionary definitions for catharsis
/ (kəˈθɑːsɪs) /
(in Aristotelian literary criticism) the purging or purification of the emotions through the evocation of pity and fear, as in tragedy
psychoanal the bringing of repressed ideas or experiences into consciousness, thus relieving tensions: See also abreaction
purgation, esp of the bowels
Origin of catharsis
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for catharsis
[ (kuh-thahr-suhs) ]
An experience of emotional release and purification, often inspired by or through art. In psychoanalysis, catharsis is the release of tension and anxiety that results from bringing repressed feelings and memories into consciousness.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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