View source for Catharsis

{{Short description|Psychological event that purges emotions}}
{{other uses}}
'''Catharsis''' is from the [[Ancient Greek]] word {{lang|el|[[wikt:κάθαρσις|κάθαρσις]]}}, {{transliteration|el|''katharsis''}}, meaning "purification" or "cleansing", commonly used to refer to the purification and purgation of thoughts and emotions by way of expressing them. The desired result is an emotional state of renewal and restoration.<ref name=":5">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l2XgAAAAMAAJ | last = Berndtson | first = Arthur | title = Art, Expression, and Beauty | publisher = Krieger | year = 1975 | page = 235|isbn=9780882752174 | quote=The theory of catharsis has a disarming affinity with the expressional theory, since it emphasizes emotion, asserts a change in emotion as a result of aesthetic operations, and concludes on a note of freedom in relation to the emotion}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PvZYaJmH6LcC | title=Looking for an Argument: Critical Encounters with the New Approaches to the Criticism of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries | first=Richard | last=Levin |year=2003 | page=42 | publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press | quote=Catharsis in Shakespearean tragedy involves ... some kind of restoration of order and a renewal or enhancement of our positive feelings for the hero.| isbn=9780838639641 }}</ref>

In [[dramaturgy]], the term usually refers to arousing [[negative affectivity|negative emotion]] in an audience, who subsequently expels it, making them feel happier.<ref name=":7">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1995 |title=catharsis |encyclopedia=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature |publisher=Merriam-Webster |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eKNK1YwHcQ4C&pg=PA217 |page=217 |isbn=9780877790426}}</ref>

In Greek the term originally had only a physical meaning, describing purification practices. In medicine, it can still refer to the evacuation of the ''[[wikt:catamenia|catamenia]]'' ("monthlies", [[menstrual]] fluid). Similarly, a [[cathartic]] is a substance that accelerates the [[defecation]] of [[Feces|faeces]].

The first recorded uses of the term in a mental sense were by [[Aristotle]] in the ''[[Politics (Aristotle)|Politics]]'' and ''[[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]]'', comparing the effects of [[music]] and [[tragedy]] on the mind of a spectator to the effect of catharsis on the body.<ref name=":3">Aristotle, ''Poetics'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0056%3Asection%3D1449b 1449b]</ref><ref name=":4">{{cite encyclopedia |title=catharsis (criticism) |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=28 May 2023 |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/99492/catharsis}}</ref>

The term is also used in Greek to refer to the spiritual purging process that occurs in the Catholic doctrine of [[purgatory]]. Greek [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonists]] also used the term to refer to spiritual purification.

[[Catharism]] was used by outsiders to describe the thinking of a Christian movement, named because of its interest in purity.

In [[psychology]], the term is associated with Freudian [[psychoanalysis]] where it relates to the expression of buried trauma (the cause of a [[neurosis]]), bringing it into consciousness and releasing it, increasing happiness.

== Purification ritual ==
The term "kathairein" and its relatives appear in the work of [[Homer]], referring to purification rituals. The words "kathairein" and "katharos" became common in Greek. It is thought that they are derived from the [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] word "qatar" ("fumigate").{{sfnp|Burkert|1992|p=64}}

''[[Aithiopis]]'', a later [[epic (poetry)|epic]] set in the [[Epic Cycle|Trojan War cycle]], narrates the purification of [[Achilles]] after his murder of [[Thersites]].{{sfnp|Burkert|1992|p=56}}

Later, the Greeks took certain new measures to cleanse away blood-guilt—"blood is purified through blood",{{sfnp|Burkert|1992|p=56}} a process in the development of [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenistic]] culture in which the [[Delphi|oracle of Delphi]] took a prominent role. The classic example—[[Orestes]]—belongs to tragedy, but the procedure given by [[Aeschylus]] is ancient: the blood of a sacrificed piglet is allowed to wash over the blood-polluted man, and running water washes away the blood.<ref>Burkert notes parallels with a bilingual [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]-[[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] ritual text: "the knowledgeable specialist, the sacrificial piglet, slaughter, contact with blood, and the subsequent cleansing with water" {{harvp|Burkert|1992|p=58}}.</ref> The identical ritual is represented, Burkert informs us, on a ''[[krater]]'' found at Canicattini, wherein it is shown being employed to cure the daughters of [[Proetus]] from their madness, caused by some ritual transgression.{{sfnp|Burkert|1992|p=57}}

To the question of whether the ritual obtains [[atonement (penal substitution view)|atonement]] for the subject, or just [[healing]], Burkert answers: "To raise the question is to see the irrelevance of this distinction".{{sfnp|Burkert|1992|p=57}}

==Platonism==

In [[Platonism]], catharsis is part of the soul's progressive ascent to knowledge. It is a means to go beyond the senses and embrace the pure world of the intelligible.<ref>[[Giovanni Reale|Reale, Giovanni]], (1990) ''History of Ancient Philosophy'', vols. 5, trans. by John R. Catan, Albany: State University of New York Press, vol II, pp. 166–167</ref> Specifically for the [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonists]] [[Plotinus]] and [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]], catharsis is the elimination of passions. This leads to a clear distinction in the virtues. In the second tractate of the first [[The Enneads|Ennead]], Plotinus lays out the difference between the civic virtues and the cathartic virtues and explains that the civic, or political, virtues are inferior. They are a principle of order and beauty and concern material existence. (''Enneads'', I,2,2) Although they maintain a trace of the Absolute Good, they do not lead to the unification of the soul with the divinity. As Porphyry makes clear, their function is to moderate individual passions and allow for peaceful coexistence with others. (''Sentences'', XXXIX) The purificatory, or cathartic, virtues are a condition for assimilation to the divinity. They separate the soul from the sensible, from everything that is not its true self, enabling it to contemplate the Mind (''[[Nous]]'').<ref>Smith, Andrew, (2004) Philosophy in Late Antiquity, London and New York, Routledge, pp. 62–64</ref>

== Passive psychological ==
Catharsis is a term used in [[drama|dramatic art]] that describes a particular effect of a performance on its audience.<ref>{{cite book | title=Catharsis in Healing, Ritual, and Drama | url=https://archive.org/details/catharsisinheali00sche | url-access=registration | first=Thomas J. | last = Scheff | author-link=Thomas J. Scheff | isbn=978-0-595-15237-7|publisher=University of California Press | year=1979}}</ref>

The first recorded use of the term being used in the mental sense was by [[Aristotle]] in his work ''[[Politics (Aristotle)|Politics]]'', regarding the use of music'':''<blockquote>And since we accept the classification of melodies made by some philosophers, as ethical melodies, melodies of action, and passionate melodies, distributing the various harmonies among these classes as being in nature akin to one or the other, and as we say that music ought to be employed not for the purpose of one benefit that it confers but on account of several (for it serves the purpose both of education and of purgation [κάθαρσις]—the term purgation we use for the present without explanation, but we will return to discuss the meaning that we give to it more explicitly in our treatise on poetry—and thirdly it serves for amusement, serving to relax our tension and to give rest from it), it is clear that we should employ all the harmonies, yet not employ them all in the same way, but use the most ethical ones for education, and the active and passionate kinds for listening to when others are performing (for any experience that occurs violently in some souls is found in all, though with different degrees of intensity—for example pity and fear, and also religious excitement; for some persons are very liable to this form of emotion, and under the influence of sacred music we see these people, when they use tunes that violently arouse the soul, being thrown into a state as if they had received medicinal treatment and taken a purge [καθάρσεως]; the same experience then must come also to the compassionate and the timid and the other emotional people generally in such degree as befalls each individual of these classes, and all must undergo a purgation [κάθαρσις] and a pleasant feeling of relief; and similarly also the purgative [κάθαρσιν] melodies afford harmless delight to people).<ref>{{cite book |author=Aristotle |author-link=Aristotle |title=Politics |title-link=Politics (Aristotle) |chapter=Book 8 |chapter-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0058:book=8:section=1341b |access-date=2024-06-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=McCoy |first=Marina Berzins |publication-date=2013-09-26 |title=Wounded Heroes: Vulnerability as a Virtue in Ancient Greek Literature and Philosophy |chapter=Chapter 7: Tragedy, Katharsis, and Community in Aristotle’s ''Poetics'' |pages=168–203 |chapter-url=https://academic.oup.com/book/26718/chapter/195543453 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/26718 |access-date=2024-06-04 |publisher=Oxford Academic |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199672783.003.0007 |isbn=978-0-19-175732-7 <!--Online ISBN given. Print is 9780199672783 -->}}</ref> (As translated by Harris Rackham)</blockquote>In his treatise on poetry, ''[[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]]'', he describes the relief brought about by a staged [[tragedy]]:<ref name=":4" /><blockquote>We must now treat of tragedy after first gathering up the definition of its nature which results from what we have said already. Tragedy is, then, a representation of an action that is heroic and complete and of a certain magnitude—by means of language enriched with all kinds of ornament, each used separately in the different parts of the play: it represents men in action and does not use narrative, and through pity and fear it effects relief [κάθαρσις] to these and similar emotions.<ref name=":3" /> (As translated by Harris Rackham)</blockquote>

=== Purgation or purification? ===
In his works prior to the ''Poetics'', Aristotle had usually used the term ''catharsis'' purely in its literal medical sense (usually referring to the evacuation of the ''katamenia''—the [[menstrual]] fluid or other reproductive material) from the patient.<ref>{{cite book | last = Belifiore | first = Elizabeth S. | title = Tragic Pleasures: Aristotle on Plot and Emotion | page = 300 | publisher = Princeton University Press | year = 1992}}</ref> [[F. L. Lucas]] opposes, therefore, the use of words like ''purification'' and ''cleansing'' to translate ''catharsis''; he proposes that it should rather be rendered as [[Purgation (disambiguation)|''purgation'']]. "It is the human soul that is purged of its excessive passions."<ref>Lucas, F. L. (1927) ''Tragedy in Relation to Aristotle's Poetics'', p.&nbsp;24</ref>

Gerald F. Else made the following argument against the "purgation" theory: {{blockquote|It presupposes that we come to the tragic drama (unconsciously, if you will) as patients to be cured, relieved, restored to psychic health. But there is not a word to support this in the "Poetics", not a hint that the end of drama is to cure or alleviate pathological states. On the contrary it is evident in every line of the work that Aristotle is presupposing "normal" auditors, normal states of mind and feeling, normal emotional and aesthetic experience.<ref name=":1">Else, Gerald F. ''Aristotle's Poetics: The Argument'', p. 440. Cambridge, Massachusetts (1957)</ref>}}

[[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing|Lessing]] (1729–1781) sidesteps the medical attribution. He interprets ''catharsis'' as a purification ({{langx|de|Reinigung}}),<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Lessing
 | first1 = Gotthold Ephraim
 | author-link1 = Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
 | title = Hamburgische Dramaturgie
 | trans-title = Hamburg Dramaturgy
 | url =  http://www.deutschestextarchiv.de/book/view/lessing_dramaturgie02_1767/?hl=Reinigung&p=190
 | series = Deutsches Textarchiv
 | language = de
 | location = Hamburg
 | volume = 2
 | date = 1769
 | pages = 183–184
 | access-date = 2019-01-27
 | quote = Wir dürfen nur annehmen, er habe eben nicht behaupten wollen, daß beide Mittel zugleich, sowohl Furcht als Mitleid, nöthig wären, um die Reinigung der Leidenschaften zu bewirken, die er zu dem letzten Endzwecke der Tragödie macht [...].
}}
</ref> an experience that brings pity and fear into their proper balance: "In real life", he explained, "men are sometimes too much addicted to pity or fear, sometimes too little; tragedy brings them back to a virtuous and happy mean."<ref>Lucas, F. L. ''Tragedy in Relation to Aristotle's Poetics'', p.&nbsp;23. Hogarth, 1928</ref>
Tragedy is then a corrective; through watching tragedy, the audience learns how to feel these emotions at proper levels.

G.&nbsp;F. Else argues that traditional, widely held interpretations of catharsis as "purification" or "purgation" have no basis in the text of the ''Poetics'', but are derived from the use of catharsis in other Aristotelian and non-Aristotelian contexts.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Golden |first=Leon |year=1962 |title=Catharsis |journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association |volume=93 |pages=51–60 |doi=10.2307/283751 |jstor=283751}}</ref> For this reason, a number of diverse interpretations of the meaning of this term have arisen. The term is often discussed along with Aristotle's concept of [[anagnorisis]].

Elizabeth Belfiore held an alternate view of catharsis as an [[Allopathic medicine|allopathic]] process in which pity and fear produce a catharsis of emotions unlike pity and fear, which she described in her book, ''Tragic Pleasures: Aristotle on Plot and Emotion''.<ref name=":2">
{{cite book |last1=Belfiore |first1=Elizabeth S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2zEABAAAQBAJ |title=Tragic Pleasures: Aristotle on Plot and Emotion |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1992 |isbn=9781400862573 |series=Princeton Legacy Library |location=Princeton, New Jersey |publication-date=2014 |access-date=24 August 2020}}
</ref>

=== Intellectual clarification ===
In the twentieth century a paradigm shift took place in the interpretation of catharsis: a number of scholars contributed to the argument in support of the intellectual clarification concept.<ref>For example: L. Golden, ''Aristotle on Tragic and Comic Mimesis'', Atlanta, 1992; S. Halliwell, ''Aristotle's Poetics'', London, 1986; D. Keesey, "On Some Recent Interpretations of Catharsis", ''The Classical World'', (1979) 72.4, 193–205.</ref> The clarification theory of catharsis would be fully consistent, as other interpretations are not, with Aristotle's argument in chapter 4 of the ''Poetics'' (1448b4-17) that the essential pleasure of [[mimesis]] is the intellectual pleasure of "learning and inference".<ref name=":1" />

It is generally understood{{by whom|date=August 2020}} that Aristotle's theory of mimesis and catharsis represent responses to [[Plato]]'s negative view of artistic [[mimesis]] on an audience. Plato argued that the most common forms of artistic mimesis were designed to evoke from an audience powerful emotions such as pity, fear, and ridicule which override the rational control that defines the highest level of our humanity and lead us to wallow unacceptably in the overindulgence of emotion and passion.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}} Aristotle's concept of catharsis, in all of the major senses attributed to it, contradicts Plato's view by providing a mechanism that generates the rational control of irrational emotions. Most scholars consider all of the commonly held interpretations of catharsis, purgation, purification, and clarification to represent a process in which pity and fear accomplish the catharsis of emotions like themselves.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}

[[D. W. Lucas|D.&nbsp;W. Lucas]], in an authoritative{{by whom|date=August 2020}} edition of the ''Poetics'', comprehensively covers the various nuances inherent in the meaning of the term in an Appendix devoted to "Pity, Fear, and Katharsis".<ref>{{cite book |last=Lucas |first=D. W. |title=Aristotle: Poetics |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1977 |isbn=978-0198140245 |pages=276–79}}</ref> Lucas recognizes the possibility of catharsis bearing some aspect of the meaning of "purification, purgation, and 'intellectual clarification,'" although his approach to these terms differs in some ways from that of other influential scholars. In particular, Lucas's interpretation is based on "the Greek doctrine of Humours," which has not received wide subsequent acceptance. The conception of catharsis in terms of purgation and purification remains in wide use today, as it has for centuries.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nichols |first1=Michael P. |title=Catharsis in Psychotherapy |last2=Zax |first2=Melvin |publisher=John Wiley & Sons Inc, New York |year=1977 |isbn=978-0470990643}}</ref> However, since the twentieth century, the interpretation of catharsis as "intellectual clarification" has gained recognition in describing the effect of catharsis on members of the audience.

=== Attempts to avoid passive catharsis ===
There have been, for political or aesthetic reasons, deliberate attempts made to subvert the effect of catharsis in theatre.

For example, [[Bertolt Brecht]] viewed catharsis as a pap (pabulum) for the [[bourgeois]] theatre audience, and designed dramas which left significant emotions unresolved, intending to force social action upon the audience. Brecht then identified the concept of catharsis with the notion of identification of the spectator, meaning a complete adhesion of the viewer to the dramatic actions and characters. Brecht reasoned that the absence of a cathartic resolution would require the audience to take political action in the real world, in order to fill the emotional gap they had experienced vicariously. This technique can be seen as early as his [[agit-prop]] play ''[[The Measures Taken]]'', and is mostly the source of his invention of an ''[[epic theatre]]'', based on a [[distancing effect]] (Verfremdungseffekt) between the viewer and the representation or portrayal of characters.<ref>[[Bertolt Brecht|Brecht, Bertold]], "La dramaturgie non aristotélicienne", ''Théâtre épique, théâtre dialectique'', éd. Jean-Marie Valentin, Paris, Éditions de L'Arche, 1999, pp. 69–70.</ref>

Brazilian dramatist [[Augusto Boal]], inventor of the [[Theatre of the Oppressed|Theater of the Oppressed]], which seeks to eliminate the distinction between spectator and actor, also considers this kind of catharsis "something very harmful". “In me, too, and in everyone else, there is the power to change. I want to release and develop these skills. The bourgeois theater oppresses them.”<ref>Henry Thorau: Interview mit Augusto Boal, in: Augusto Boal: ''Theater der Unterdrückten / Übungen und Spiele für Schauspieler und Nicht-Schauspieler.'' Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1989, S. 157–168, hier S. 159.</ref>

== Active and conversational psychological ==

=== Psychoanalysis ===<!-- 'Cathartic method' redirects here -->
[[Jakob Bernays]] was a German philosopher who wrote books about Aristotle's views of drama in 1857 and 1880. These prompted a lot of writing about catharsis in the German speaking world.<ref name=":6" />

In this environment, Austrian psychiatrist [[Josef Breuer]] developed a '''cathartic method'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> of treatment using [[hypnosis]] for persons who have intensive [[hysteria]] in the early 1890s. While under hypnosis, Breuer's patients were able to recall [[psychological trauma|traumatic]] experiences, and through the process of expressing the original emotions that had been repressed and forgotten (and had formed [[Neurosis|neuroses]]), they were relieved of their neurotic hysteria symptoms. Breuer became a mentor to fellow Austrian psychiatrist [[Sigmund Freud]] (who was married to Bernays' niece). Breuer and Freud released the book ''[[Studies on Hysteria]]'' in 1895. This book explained the cathartic method to the world, and was the first published work about [[psychoanalysis]].<blockquote>The injured person's reaction to the [[Psychological trauma|trauma]] only exercises a completely 'cathartic' effect if it is an ''adequate'' reaction as, for instance, revenge. But language serves as a substitute for action; by its help, an affect can be '[[Abreaction|abreacted]]' almost as effectively.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Josef Breuer And Sigmund Freud |url=http://archive.org/details/studiesonhysteri037649mbp |title=Studies On Hysteria |date= |publisher=Basic Books |others=Universal Digital Library}}</ref></blockquote>As Freud developed psychoanalysis, catharsis remained a central part of it. After trying hypnotherapy and finding it wanting, Freud replaced it with [[Free association (psychology)|free association]].<ref>{{cite book | editor-last=Strickland | editor-first=Bonnie | editor-link=Bonnie Strickland | title=Catharsis | publisher=Gale | year=2001 }}</ref> Catharsis has remained an important part of "[[talking therapies]]" ever since.

The term ''[[cathexis]]'' has also been adopted by modern [[psychotherapy]], particularly Freudian psychoanalysis, to describe the act of experiencing the deep emotions associated with events in the individual's past which had originally been repressed or ignored, and had never been adequately addressed or experienced.

=== Psychodrama ===
[[Psychodrama]] involves people expressing themselves using spontaneous [[Adaptation (arts)|dramatization]], [[role playing]], and dramatic [[self-presentation]] to investigate and gain insight into their lives.<ref name=":5" /> Psychodrama includes elements of [[theater]], often conducted on a [[Stage (theatre)|stage]], or a space that serves as a stage area, where [[Theatrical property|props]] can be used.

The therapy was developed by American [[Jacob L. Moreno|Jacob Moreno]] (a psychiatrist previously from Romania and Austria) and later also his wife [[Zerka T. Moreno|Zerka Moreno]] (a psychologist previously from the Netherlands and the UK). Jacob was a contemporary of Freud, but rejected many of his ideas of psychoanalysis. He developed psychodrama in New York from 1925. In 1929, he founded an Impromptu Theater at [[Carnegie Hall]]. In 1936, he founded the Beacon Hill Sanitarium, and the adjacent Therapeutic Theater.<ref name=":7" /> The Morenos established the Psychodramatic Institute in New York in 1942.

A psychodrama therapy group, under the direction of a psychodramatist, reenacts real-life, past situations (or inner mental processes), acting them out in present time. Participants then have the opportunity to evaluate their behavior, reflect on how the past incident is getting played out in the present and more deeply understand particular situations in their lives.<ref name="kellerman">{{cite book |last=Kellermann |first=Peter Felix |title=Focus on Psychodrama |publisher=Jessica Kingsley |year=1992 |isbn=978-1-85302-127-5}}</ref>

Other forms of cathartic [[drama therapy]] have since been developed, including [[Theatre of the Oppressed|Theater of the Oppressed]].

[[Playback Theatre]] is a form of [[improvisational theatre]] in which audience or group members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot. This can have therapeutic uses.

There are additionally other forms of [[expressive therapies]] which make use of various kinds of art.

=== Primal therapy ===
[[Primal therapy]] is a [[Psychological trauma|trauma]]-based [[psychotherapy]] created by American psychologist [[Arthur Janov]], who argues that [[neurosis]] is caused by the [[Psychological repression|repressed]] pain of childhood trauma. Janov argues that repressed pain can be sequentially brought to conscious awareness for resolution through re-experiencing specific incidents and fully expressing the resulting pain during therapy. Primal therapy was developed as a means of eliciting the repressed pain; the term ''Pain'' is capitalized in discussions of primal therapy when referring to any repressed emotional distress and its purported long-lasting psychological effects. Janov criticizes the [[talking therapies]] as they deal primarily with the [[cerebral cortex]] and higher-reasoning areas and do not access the source of Pain within the more basic parts of the [[central nervous system]].<ref name="PoPInt">Janov, A., ''Prisoners of Pain'', Introduction</ref>

Primal therapy is used to re-experience childhood pain—i.e., felt rather than conceptual memories—in an attempt to resolve the pain through complete processing and integration, becoming real. An intended objective of the therapy is to lessen or eliminate the hold early trauma exerts on adult behaviour.

=== Social catharsis ===
Emotional situations can elicit physiological, behavioral, cognitive, expressive, and subjective changes in individuals. Affected individuals often use social sharing as a cathartic release of emotions.

Bernard Rimé studies the patterns of social sharing after emotional experiences. His works suggest that individuals seek social outlets in an attempt to modify the situation and restore personal homeostatic balance. Rimé found that 80–95% of emotional episodes are shared. The affected individuals talk about the emotional experience recurrently to people around them throughout the following hours, days, or weeks. These results indicate that this response is irrespective of emotional valence, gender, education, and culture. His studies also found that social sharing of emotion increases as the intensity of the emotion increases.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|title = Emotion Elicits the Social Sharing of Emotion: Theory and Empirical Review|journal = Emotion Review|year=2009|issn = 1754-0739|pages = 60–85|volume = 1|issue = 1|doi = 10.1177/1754073908097189|first = Bernard|last = Rimé|citeseerx = 10.1.1.557.1662|s2cid = 145356375}}</ref>

If emotions are shared socially and elicits emotion in the listener then the listener will likely share what they heard with other people. Rimé calls this process "secondary social sharing". If this repeats, it is then called "tertiary social sharing".<ref name=":0" />

==== Stages ====
[[Émile Durkheim]] proposed emotional stages of social sharing:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Durkheim |first=Émile |url=https://archive.org/details/elementaryformso00durk |title=The elementary forms of the religious life, a study in religious sociology |publisher=George Allen & Unwin |year=1915 |translator-last=Swain |translator-first=Joseph Ward}}</ref>
# Directly after emotional effects, the emotions are shared. Through sharing, there is a reciprocal stimulation of emotions and emotional communion.
# This leads to social effects like social integration and strengthening of beliefs.
# Finally, individuals experience a renewed trust in life, strength, and self-confidence.

==== Motives ====
Affect scientists have found differences in motives for social sharing of positive and negative emotions.

A study by Christopher Langston<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Capitalizing on and coping with daily-life events: Expressive responses to positive events|journal = Journal of Personality and Social Psychology|pages = 1112–1125|volume = 67|issue = 6|doi = 10.1037/0022-3514.67.6.1112|first = Christopher A.|last = Langston|year = 1994}}</ref> found that individuals share positive events to capitalize on the positive emotions they elicit. Reminiscing the positive experience augments positive affects like temporary mood and longer-term well-being. A study by Shelly Gable et al.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = What Do You Do When Things Go Right? The Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Benefits of Sharing Positive Events|journal = Journal of Personality and Social Psychology|pages = 228–245|volume = 87|issue = 2|doi = 10.1037/0022-3514.87.2.228|first1 = Shelly L.|last1 = Gable|first2 = Harry T.|last2 = Reis|first3 = Emily A.|last3 = Impett|first4 = Evan R.|last4 = Asher|s2cid = 4609003|pmid=15301629|year = 2004}}</ref> confirmed Langston's "capitalization" theory by demonstrating that relationship quality is enhanced when partners are responsive to positive recollections. The responsiveness increased levels of intimacy and satisfaction within the relationship. In general, the motives behind social sharing of positive events are to recall the positive emotions, inform others, and gain attention from others. All three motives are representatives of capitalization.

Bernard Rimé studies suggest that the motives behind social sharing of negative emotions are to vent, understand, bond, and gain social support. Negatively affected individuals often seek life meaning and emotional support to combat feelings of loneliness after a tragic event.<ref name=":0" />

==== Reactions to emotional events ====
When communities are affected by an emotional event, members repetitively share emotional experiences. After the 2001 New York and the 2004 Madrid terrorist attacks, more than 80% of respondents shared their emotional experience with others.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Social sharing of emotion, post-traumatic growth, and emotional climate: Follow-up of Spanish citizen's response to the collective trauma of March 11th terrorist attacks in Madrid| journal = European Journal of Social Psychology| year=2009|issn = 1099-0992|pages = 1029–1045|volume = 40|issue = 6|doi = 10.1002/ejsp.700|first1 = Bernard|last1 = Rimé|first2 = Darío|last2 = Páez|first3 = Nekane|last3 = Basabe|first4 = Francisco|last4 = Martínez|doi-access = free}}</ref> According to Bernard Rimé, every sharing round elicits emotional reactivation in the sender and the receiver. This then reactivates the need to share in both. Social sharing throughout the community leads to high amounts of emotional recollection and "emotional overheating".

[[James W. Pennebaker|James Pennebaker]] and Kent Harber<ref>{{Cite journal|title = A Social Stage Model of Collective Coping: The Loma Prieta Earthquake and The Persian Gulf War|journal = Journal of Social Issues | year = 1993 |issn = 1540-4560|pages = 125–145|volume = 49|issue = 4|doi = 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1993.tb01184.x|first1 = James W.|last1 = Pennebaker|first2 = Kent D.|last2 = Harber}}</ref> defined three stages of collective responses to emotional events:

# a state of "emergency" takes place in the first month after the emotional event. In this stage, there is an abundance of thoughts, talks, media coverage, and social integration based on the event.
# the "plateau" occurs in the second month. Abundant thoughts remain, but the amount of talks, media coverage, and social integration decreases.
# the "extinction" occurs after the second month. There is a return to normalcy.

==== A critical perspective of collective catharsis ====
[[Frantz Fanon]], in his book ''[[Black Skin, White Masks]]'', provides a multi-dimensional and critical analysis of the manifestations and implications of colonial racism in early 1900 France, including a critical conceptualization of collective catharsis within the context of colonial states. Fanon’s perspective on collective catharsis highlights the psychological impact of cultural and social narratives on white as well as black individuals in European-colonized contexts, exploring how these narratives serve as a means of channeling collective aggression<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tuten |first=Matthew Miyagi |date=2021 |title=Actional Agency and Collective Catharsis: Fanon's Critique of Hegel's Recognitive Theory of Self-Consciousness |url=https://www.academia.edu/88125752 |journal=Filosofisk Supplement |pages=52–61 |via=[[Academia.edu]]}}</ref> and establishing social norms and attitudes that perpetuate racial stereotypes and negative self-perceptions among black individuals.

Intertwining social psychology and psychoanalysis, Fanon conceptualizes collective catharsis as a release of aggressive impulses, “a channel, an outlet through which the forces accumulated in the form of aggression can be released,"<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=Fanon |first=Frantz |title=Black Skin, White Masks |publisher=Pluto Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-7453-2848-5 |location=London, UK |pages=112 |language=}}</ref> and analyzes how this aggressive release manifests for the white colonizers in the ‘civilized’ context. In an era where overtly cruel acts of racism such as lynching and slavery are frowned upon and no longer a commonplace reality, Fanon explores how the white population finds more subtle outlets for their aggressive impulses through acts of collective catharsis.  

“Did the little black child see his father beaten or lynched by a white man? Has there been a real traumatism? To all of this we have to answer no. Well, then?

If we want to answer correctly, we have to fall back on the idea of collective catharsis.”<ref name=":8" />

Fanon highlights how popular entertainment, such as children's magazines or comic books, often portrays "Evil Spirits" as black individuals and other racialized figures and thereby serves as a cathartic release for the collective aggression of the white colonizers.<ref name=":8" /> In these stories, the socially unacceptable racist desires of white individuals are [[Sublimation (psychology)|sublimated]] through fiction and pop culture, allowing for the dehumanization and derogation of black individuals. And so too, in this way, are the establishment of social norms and attitudes that perpetuate racial stereotypes argued as acts of collective catharsis by the dominant white hegemony.

Fanon underscores that because the black individual is immersed in this white-centric hegemonic state, they are implicated in this collective catharsis as not only the target of the aggressive release but also as the perpetrators.<ref name=":8" /> In engagement with these derogatory fictions or channels of collective catharsis, the black individual identifies with the white hero and encourages their defeat of the ‘uncivilized’ black antagonists. This co-perpetration and identification with the white protagonists (of fiction and society) results in the black individual internalizing these oppressive narratives, thereby developing an incongruence between their actual and ideal selves that is inherently unbreachable.

=== Effects ===
This cathartic release of emotions is often believed to be therapeutic for affected individuals. Many therapeutic mechanisms have been seen to aid in emotional recovery. One example is "[[interpersonal emotion regulation]]", in which listeners help to modify the affected individual's affective state by using certain strategies.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = The Social Regulation of Emotion: An Integrative, Cross-Disciplinary Model|journal = Trends in Cognitive Sciences|volume=20|issue=1|pages=47–63|year=2016|issn = 1879-307X|pmid = 26564248|pmc = 5937233|doi = 10.1016/j.tics.2015.09.003|first1 = Crystal|last1 = Reeck|first2 = Daniel R.|last2 = Ames|first3 = Kevin N.|last3 = Ochsner}}</ref> [[Expressive writing]] is another common mechanism for personal catharsis. Joanne Frattaroli<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Experimental disclosure and its moderators: A meta-analysis|journal = Psychological Bulletin|pages = 823–865|volume = 132|issue = 6|doi = 10.1037/0033-2909.132.6.823|pmid = 17073523|first = Joanne|last = Frattaroli|year = 2006}}</ref> published a meta-analysis suggesting that written disclosure of information, thoughts, and feelings enhances mental health.

There has been much debate about the use of catharsis in the reduction of anger. Some scholars believe that "blowing off steam" may reduce physiological stress in the short term, but this reduction may act as a reward mechanism, reinforcing the behavior and promoting future outbursts.<ref name="Bushman1999">{{cite journal |last1=Bushman |first1=B. J. |last2=Baumeister |first2=R. F. |last3=Stack |first3=A. D. |date=March 1999 |title=Catharsis, aggression, and persuasive influence: self-fulfilling or self-defeating prophecies? |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |volume=76 |issue=3 |pages=367–376 |doi=10.1037/0022-3514.76.3.367 |pmid=10101875 |s2cid=18773447}}</ref><ref name="Gannon2007">{{cite book |last1=Gannon |first1=Theresa A. |author-link=Theresa Gannon |title=Aggressive offenders' cognition: theory, research, and practice |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-470-03401-9 |editor1-last=Gannon |editor1-first=Theresa A. |volume=35 |editor2-last=Ward |editor2-first=Tony |editor3-last=Beech |editor3-first=Anthony R. |editor4-last=Fisher |editor4-first=Dawn}}</ref><ref name="Baron2004">{{cite book |last1=Baron |first1=Robert A. |title=Human Aggression |last2=Richardson |first2=Deborah R. |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-306-48434-6 |chapter=Catharsis: does 'getting it out of one's system' really help?}}</ref><ref name="Denzler2009">{{cite journal |last1=Denzler |first1=Markus |last2=Förster |first2=Jens |last3=Liberman |first3=Nira |date=January 2009 |title=How goal-fulfillment decreases aggression |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00645184/file/PEER_stage2_10.1016%252Fj.jesp.2008.08.021.pdf |journal=Journal of Experimental Social Psychology |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=90–100 |doi=10.1016/j.jesp.2008.08.021 |s2cid=55600118}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bushman |first=Brad J. |date=2002 |title=Does Venting Anger Feed or Extinguish the Flame? Catharsis, Rumination, Distraction, Anger, and Aggressive Responding |journal=Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin |volume=28 |issue=6 |pages=724–731 |doi=10.1177/0146167202289002 |s2cid=5686861}}</ref> However, other studies have suggested that using violent media may decrease hostility under periods of stress.<ref name="Ferguson & Rueda, 2010">{{cite journal |last=Ferguson |first=Christopher |year=2010 |title=The Hitman study: Violent video game exposure effects on aggressive behavior, hostile feelings and depression |url=http://www.christopherjferguson.com/hitman.pdf |journal=European Psychologist |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=99–108 |doi=10.1027/1016-9040/a000010 |author2-first=Stephanie |author2-last=Rueda}}</ref>

Legal scholars have linked personal "catharsis" to "[[Closure (psychology)|closure]]"<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bandes |first=Susan A. |year=2009 |title=Victims, 'Closure,' and the Sociology of Emotion |url=http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol72/iss2/2/ |journal=Law and Contemporary Problems |volume=72 |issue=2 |pages=1–26 |jstor=40647733 |ssrn=1112140}}</ref> (an individual's desire for a firm answer to a question and an aversion toward ambiguity) and "[[Contentment|satisfaction]]" which can be applied to affective strategies as diverse as retribution, on one hand, and forgiveness on the other.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kanwar |first=Vik |year=2002 |title=Capital Punishment as 'Closure': Limits of a Victim-Centered Jurisprudence |journal=New York University Review of Law and Social Change |volume=27 |pages=215–255 |ssrn=978347 |number=2&3}}</ref>

Some studies question the benefits of social catharsis. Catrin Finkenauer and colleagues<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Finkenauer |first1=Catrin |last2=Luminet |first2=Olivier |last3=Gisle |first3=Lydia |last4=El-Ahmadi |first4=Abdessadek |last5=Linden |first5=Martial Van Der |last6=Philippot |first6=Pierre |year=1998 |title=Flashbulb memories and the underlying mechanisms of their formation: Toward an emotional-integrative model |journal=Memory & Cognition |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=516–531 |doi=10.3758/BF03201160 |issn=0090-502X |pmid=9610122 |doi-access=free}}</ref> found that non-shared memories were no more emotionally triggering than shared ones. Other studies have also failed to prove that social catharsis leads to any degree of emotional recovery. Emmanuelle Zech and Bernard Rimé<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zech |first1=Emmanuelle |last2=Rimé |first2=Bernard |year=2005 |title=Is talking about an emotional experience helpful? effects on emotional recovery and perceived benefits |journal=Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=270–287 |doi=10.1002/cpp.460 |s2cid=144923110 |issn=1099-0879|doi-access=free }}</ref> asked participants to recall and share a negative experience with an experimenter. When compared with the control group that only discussed unemotional topics, there was no correlation between emotional sharing and emotional recovery.

Some studies even found adverse effects of social catharsis. Contrary to the Frattaroli study, David Sbarra and colleagues<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Sbarra |first1=David A. |last2=Boals |first2=Adriel |last3=Mason |first3=Ashley E. |last4=Larson |first4=Grace M. |last5=Mehl |first5=Matthias R. |year=2013 |title=Expressive Writing Can Impede Emotional Recovery Following Marital Separation |journal=Clinical Psychological Science |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=120–134 |doi=10.1177/2167702612469801 |issn=2167-7026 |pmc=4297672 |pmid=25606351}}</ref> found expressive writing to greatly impede emotional recovery following a marital separation. Similar findings have been published regarding trauma recovery. A group intervention technique is often used on disaster victims to prevent trauma-related disorders. However, meta-analysis showed negative effects of this cathartic "therapy".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=van Emmerik |first1=Arnold A. P. |last2=Kamphuis |first2=Jan H. |last3=Hulsbosch |first3=Alexander M. |last4=Emmelkamp |first4=Paul M. G. |year=2002 |title=Single session debriefing after psychological trauma: a meta-analysis |journal=Lancet |volume=360 |issue=9335 |pages=766–771 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(02)09897-5 |issn=0140-6736 |pmid=12241834 |s2cid=8177617}}</ref>

==See also==
* {{annotated link|Abreaction}}
* {{annotated link|Closure (psychology)}}
* {{annotated link|Dissociation (psychology)}}
* {{annotated link|Hesychasm}}
* {{annotated link|Journal therapy}}
* {{annotated link|Kenosis}}
* {{annotated link|Kairosis}}
* {{annotated link|Sublimation (psychology)}}
* {{annotated link|Theories of humor}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
* {{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Purification |volume=22 |pages=660–661}}
* {{Cite book |last=Burkert |first=Walter |url=http://archive.org/details/orientalizingrev0000burk |title=The orientalizing revolution : Near Eastern influence on Greek culture in the early archaic age |date=1992 |location=Cambridge, Mass. |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-64363-5  |author-link=Walter Burkert |url-access=limited}}
* Hammann, Christoph (2020). ''Katharsis in Kaiserzeit und Spätantike. Vorstellungen von Reinigung und Reinheit in Medizin, platonischer Philosophie und christlicher Theologie des 2. bis 4. Jahrhunderts n. Chr.'' [Catharsis in the imperial age and late antiquity. Ideas of purification and purity in medicine, Platonic philosophy and Christian theology from the 2nd to 4th century AD]. Hypomnemata, vol. 208. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, {{ISBN|978-3-525-31723-5}}.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060628230355/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-36 ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas'']: "Catharsis"
*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10663b.htm ''Catholic Encyclopedia'': "Mysticism"] and [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10742b.htm "NeoPlatonism"]
*[http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405124331_chunk_g978140512433125_ss1-226 ''Blackwell Reference'']
*{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bLudHIk3gsMC&pg=PA144 | title=No Contest: The Cast Against Competition | first=Alfie | last=Kohn | publisher=Houghton Mifflin | year=1992 | isbn=978-0-395-63125-6}}
*[http://primal-page.com/cathar.htm "Catharsis in Psychology and Beyond: A Historic Overview" by Esta Powell]

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|catharsis}}

{{Psychotherapy}}
{{Aristotelianism}}

[[Category:Psychoanalytic terminology]]
[[Category:Emotion]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek theatre]]
[[Category:Narratology]]
[[Category:Plot (narrative)]]
[[Category:Poetics]]
[[Category:Hesychasm]]
[[Category:Concepts in ancient Greek aesthetics]]