catharsis
kuh-THAR-siss
/kəˈθɑːr.sɪs/
The process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.
Implies a dramatic, cleansing emotional breakthrough that leaves a person feeling renewed.
The story behind the word. Aristotle first used 'katharsis' in his Poetics to describe how dramatic tragedy cleanses the audience's emotions of pity and fear. Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud later imported the concept into medicine to describe therapeutic emotional discharge.
Word relationships
- purgation: Purgation carries stronger medical or religious cleansing tones; catharsis is primarily psychological and artistic.
- release: Release is general; catharsis implies a profound, transformative emotional clearing.
- repression: The holding back and submerging of emotional energy.
Commonly confused with
- epiphany: An epiphany is a sudden cognitive insight; a catharsis is a sudden emotional release.
Word family
- cathartic (adjective): Providing psychological relief through the open expression of strong emotions.
Collocations
- emotional catharsis
- experience catharsis
- seek catharsis
- therapeutic catharsis
Example sentences
- "Writing expressive poetry allowed the survivor to experience a deep sense of catharsis." Psychotherapy
Memory hook
CATHARSIS is like an emotional CAT scan that CLEARS your system. Profound emotional cleansing.
When not to use
Do not use to describe routine, mild emotional expression like casual venting.
Fun facts
- Aristotle believed watching tragic plays was essential for public psychological health because it induced collective catharsis.
Related words
Take your vocabulary further with LangBlitz
Our English vocabulary app: FSRS spaced repetition, 5,000+ curated words across 119 topic groups, CEFR A1 to C2. Explore your mastery with the beautiful Vocabulary World feature.