catharsis

[kuh-thahr-sis]

noun

plural

catharses 

1. the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.

2. Medicine/Medical.,  purgation.

3. Psychiatry.

   1. psychotherapy that encourages or permits the discharge of pent-up, socially unacceptable affects.

   2. discharge of pent-up emotions so as to result in the alleviation of symptoms or the permanent relief of the condition.

catharsis

/ kəˈθɑːsɪs /

noun

1. (in Aristotelian literary criticism) the purging or purification of the emotions through the evocation of pity and fear, as in tragedy

2. psychoanal the bringing of repressed ideas or experiences into consciousness, thus relieving tensions See also abreaction

3. purgation, esp of the bowels

catharsis

1. 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.

Other Word Forms

• hypercatharsis noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of catharsis¹

First recorded in 1795–1805; from New Latin, from Greek kátharsis “a cleansing,” equivalent to kathar- (variant stem of kathaírein “to cleanse,” derivative of katharós “pure”) + -sis -sis

Word History and Origins

Origin of catharsis¹

C19: New Latin, from Greek katharsis, from kathairein to purge, purify

Example Sentences

He suggested that instead of reading the menu, Timothy might riff about how actors chase emotional catharsis, turning the moment into a commentary rather than a performance.

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Such funerals only mark our loss and offer a brief catharsis, as though insisting that the dead have no place among us anymore.

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It was a moment of raw catharsis as well as a culmination.

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As the drama reaches catharsis, the rain abates and the skies clear.

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In the public sphere, there are countless variations on similar mediated versions of the truth, stories that provide a measure of emotional catharsis.

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