catharsis

[ kuh-thahr-sis ]

noun

, plural ca·thar·ses [k, uh, -, thahr, -seez].

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 Words From

• hyper·ca·tharsis 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

Beabadoobee is at her best when she sounds like a friend shouldering your emotional baggage, translating heartbreak and disappointment into true catharsis.

From Washington Post

In 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.

From Fortune

Movie theaters are the best environment for catharsis, but they need to respond to shifts in attitudes and taste.

From Fortune

Flanagan seems to rely on emotional catharsis to divert audiences from the way his plots tend to collapse onto themselves in the finale.

From Vox

Your emotions find catharsis in the opera—circumspectly, in the darkness.

From MIT Technology Review

People for whom a game that openly invites such jokes is a liberating catharsis.

From The Daily Beast

Listen closely enough, and you can hear a bit of emotional catharsis.

From The Daily Beast

But I always feel that making the film is the catharsis that stops the nightmares, if you will.

From The Daily Beast

Encountering such exaggerations on the page serves as a kind of catharsis, and provides a kind of perspective.

From The Daily Beast

If crying is the holy grail of therapeutic catharsis, I am clearly failing.

From The Daily Beast

He however refers only to the catharsis upon the spectator, but not to that of the author's work upon himself.

From Project Gutenberg

He had no sympathy with the poetry that had a social message and he did not understand its effect as a catharsis.

From Project Gutenberg

The bowels should be kept open by some mild catharsis, as castor oil or a pill of aloes.

From Project Gutenberg

Her simple faith in immanent good was working upon his mind like a spiritual catharsis, to purge it of its clogging beliefs.

From Project Gutenberg

Doses of from two to ten grains may be repeated at suitable intervals until catharsis has been produced.

From Project Gutenberg