Catharsis

Catharsis is a term derived from an ancient Greek word usually translated as "purification" or "cleansing." Scholars typically attribute the origins of the term to the philosopher Aristotle, who used it in reference to the dramatic arts and defined it as the purging of the emotions aroused in the audience by the events of an unfolding play. The term was later adopted by psychologists, beginning with Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud, who applied it to describe instinctive outbursts of human emotion, such as crying, in response to an acute or underlying stressor, situation, or unresolved state. Thus, the term has related but divergent meanings in the two fields in which it is most prevalent.

Catharsis in the Dramatic Arts

Aristotle first used the term in his treatise Poetics, which is the oldest surviving text on the topic of dramatic theory and an essential part of the Western literary canon. In Poetics, Aristotle explains catharsis as the emotional impact that a work of drama has on an audience, particularly with regard to the feelings of pity and fear. Pity is the audience's emotional connection with the plight of the play's central character, and fear is the audience's concern for the central character's well-being. Aristotle believed that a well-written tragedy purges these emotions from the audience at the conclusion of the play; this emotional resolution is the essence of catharsis. In Aristotelian dramatic theory, catharsis immediately follows the plot element Aristotle called "catastrophe," which marks the moment of maximum dramatic tension and its subsequent resolution through the actions of the protagonist. Therefore, the moment of catharsis initiates the "falling action" of the drama, a segment of the narrative alternately known as the denouement.

The idea of catharsis has since been extensively explored and developed by scholars and literary theorists. Over the years, various alternate interpretations of the term have been proposed, with the most noteworthy being that catharsis could be taken to refer to the moment of intellectual clarification at which the audience realizes how the action of a dramatic work is going to resolve. However, prevailing definitions of the term still focus on the emotional closure an audience experiences as the plot of a dramatic work reaches its final conclusion rather than on intellectual forms of epiphany.

One of the best-known examples of catharsis can be found in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, in the scene in which Romeo, believing Juliet to be dead, commits suicide; Juliet subsequently awakens, discovers what Romeo has done, and follows him into death, thus bringing about a simultaneously tragic and definitive conclusion to the story. With the main plotline and the central emotional arc of the play thus resolved, all that remains is for Romeo and Juliet's feuding families to bury their dead children and put their long-standing dispute behind them.

An important secondary aspect of catharsis is that it leads to what some theorists have termed "restoration" and "renewal." Dramatic plots, by their very nature, begin with the disruption of the normal balance of a protagonist's life; the moment of catharsis at the end of the work signals the restoration of balance, which is typically a new type of balance rather than a simple return to the initial balance established at the beginning of the story. The renewal aspect of catharsis can be seen in the audience's altered, evolved, or strengthened view of the central character's humanity, which is reached by following the protagonist on an emotional journey during the ups and downs of the plot to its final end.

One noteworthy variation on the classical definition of catharsis can be seen in the works of German playwright Bertolt Brecht, who used it as an instrument to inspire social change. In Brecht's plays, cathartic moments often were designed to lead an audience not to an emotional resolution but rather to a feeling of emotional emptiness. This, in turn, would theoretically drive an audience to recognize the elements of social and political injustice that caused this feeling of emptiness, which were built into the fabric of the story. Therefore, it became possible for audience members to apply the same lessons to the world at large and become agents for change in real life.

Some modern theorists have argued that catharsis serves a deeper purpose, allowing audience members to symbolically confront and resolve their own difficult, painful, or traumatic memories. Using Romeo and Juliet as an example, the moment of catharsis in which Romeo and Juliet die together enables audience members to relive their own tragic losses of romantic love, which in turn guides them to a sense of closure by creating a connection between their own experiences and the experiences of the characters in the play.

Catharsis in Psychology

The concept of catharsis also appears in psychology, beginning with the foundational works of the field's pioneers, including Breuer and Freud. According to early psychological theories, catharsis refers to spontaneous outbursts of emotion believed to be a necessary part of psychological processing. For theorists like Breuer and Freud, catharsis could be used as a form of therapy in which patients were led to recover, confront, and resolve negative emotions brought about by repressed memories of traumatic events. Breuer and Freud defined their view of catharsis and its role in therapy in their book Studies on Hysteria (1895). While Freud later questioned the therapeutic value of this method, it nevertheless became a prevalent component of nascent approaches to psychiatric science and later evolved to become part of numerous branches of psychiatry, including emotion-focused therapy, primal therapy, and behaviorism, among others. Many such psychiatric models are still used in contemporary treatment protocols.

Today, however, psychologists and psychiatrists are divided in their opinions of the value of cathartic approaches to patient treatment. Some argue that it holds demonstrated efficacy in the management of mood disorders such as clinical depression, while others argue that it actually reinforces negative thoughts and emotions because the act of confronting underlying psychological trauma forces patients to re-immerse themselves in the original traumatic state.

Bibliography

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