Concept in Definition ABC

Tracing the use of the term catharsis (katharsis) in Greek religion and thought, —prior to the inflection that, as we shall see, Aristotle introduces— It is possible to point out three main senses in which the word is used: physiological, religious and psychic.

1. In the physiological sense, the term catharsis refers to the "purging" procedure, by which the expulsion of harmful substances to the body (not only in the case of the human body, but in a general).

2. In the religious sense, catharsis could be translated as expiation or purification, that is, the act of remove the strangeness of a thing, by which it is left in a state of perfection according to its own essence. Said purification is understood as the liberation —through ceremonies and sacred rites— of certain “impurities” that, in this context, are interpreted as “guilts”.

3. At the psychic level, catharsis is associated with physiological purging or purification in the spiritual sense. religious, as it supposes a purification of the passions of the soul, to bring a cure to its ailments.

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lilen gomez | Jul. 2022
Professor in Philosophy

The catharsis in corpus Aristotelian

In Aristotle's work, for the first time, the term catharsis is used in the context of a poetic theory. In the Poetics and in the Politics, appears employed in two senses different: on the one hand, aesthetic, on the other, medical. The novelty that Aristotle introduces is the use of the term in the first sense, aesthetic, applied to the poetry drama typical of tragedy. Although the use that the philosopher makes is related to the previous meanings that were given, until then, to the term, none coincided with the aesthetic use that appears in relation to the artistic condition of tragedy Greek.

The principle that is at the base of tragedy, in the Aristotelian explanation developed in the Poetics, is that of imitation. In tragedy, an action is imitated, presented in a rationally ordered structure from start to finish. The likelihood of the succession of acts lies in the fact that it is necessary in rational terms. Unlike the historical account, poetry develops a general story: it does not express the particularity of an event, but rather a universal dimension of human knowledge. Tragic poetry consists, then, in the imitation of an action that arouses compassion and fear, by its very structure. In the course of the tragedy, an evil is revealed that is a rational consequence of the acts of the tragic hero and that he suffers, which leads the viewer to fear that something similar will happen to him, because he identifies with him and feels compassion. Fear leads to the desire to avoid evil, and with that desire a purge is effected to correct the passions that would provoke a misfortune like that of the hero, with whom the spectator pity.

The cathartic value of tragedy is thus a practical value: the hero's tragedy translates into a learning on the viewer. Catharsis is possible given the aesthetic distance that separates the viewer from the hero's misfortune; Thanks to this distance opened by fiction, it is possible that the contemplation of horror produces, instead of fear, a new knowledge, accompanied by aesthetic pleasure.

catharsis in psychology

In psychoanalysis, from the developments of Freud and Breuer, catharsis acquires a specific technical meaning, by which the operation of bringing to consciousness is named. awareness a repressed idea or memory, in such a way that a "psychic" liberation of the subject is produced. The cathartic action, in therapy, has a curative effect: the re-enactment of intense repressed affects, representing them, allows the analytical work on those emotions, putting into practice the cure through the transference.

The "resolution" of repressed emotions through analysis, taking emotional distance from them, enables a purification of the mind of such emotions. In this sense, the interpretation of tragic catharsis in psychoanalytic terms supposes a therapeutic sense in the theatrical representation, which gives space to the manifestation of unconscious psychic dynamics.