Catharsis Facts for Kids

Catharsis is a word from Ancient Greek that means "purification" or "cleansing."

Today, it usually means getting rid of strong thoughts and feelings by expressing them. When you experience catharsis, you might feel a sense of renewal and feel better emotionally.

In plays and movies, catharsis often means that the audience feels strong emotions, like sadness or fear, and then releases them. This can make them feel happier or more relieved afterward.

Long ago, in Greek, the word first meant only physical cleansing. Later, thinkers like Aristotle started using it to describe how music and tragedy (sad plays) could affect people's minds, similar to how physical cleansing affects the body.

The word is also used in some Christian traditions to talk about a spiritual cleansing process.

What Does Catharsis Mean?
Catharsis in Theater
Catharsis in Psychology
Social Catharsis
- How Social Sharing Happens
Effects of Catharsis
See also

What Does Catharsis Mean?

The word "catharsis" comes from Greek words like "kathairein" and "katharos," which mean "to purify" or "clean." These words were very common in ancient Greece. Some people think they might come from an older Semitic word "qatar," which means "to fumigate" or "clean with smoke."

Catharsis in Theater

In Platonism, a way of thinking from ancient Greece, catharsis was seen as a way for the soul to gain more knowledge. It was like a path to understand deeper truths beyond what we see and hear.

In plays and performances, catharsis describes how a show affects its audience. It's the feeling of emotional release that viewers might experience.

Some theater creators have tried to change this effect. For example, Bertolt Brecht, a famous playwright, thought that catharsis made audiences too comfortable. He designed plays that left strong emotions unresolved. He wanted the audience to feel a gap, so they would be inspired to take action in the real world to fix problems. He called this his "distancing effect" (Verfremdungseffekt), which kept the audience from getting too lost in the play's story.

Another playwright, Augusto Boal, who created the Theatre of the Oppressed, also believed that traditional catharsis could be harmful. He wanted to break down the wall between actors and the audience, so everyone could feel empowered to change things.

Catharsis in Psychology

In the early 1890s, an Austrian doctor named Josef Breuer developed a special way to help people with strong hysteria. He used hypnosis to help his patients remember difficult past experiences. By talking about and expressing the strong feelings they had kept hidden, they felt better and their symptoms improved.

Breuer later became a mentor to another famous Austrian doctor, Sigmund Freud. Together, they wrote a book called Studies on Hysteria in 1895. This book introduced the idea of catharsis to the world and was one of the first works about psychoanalysis, which is a way of understanding the mind.

As Freud continued to develop psychoanalysis, catharsis remained a very important part of it. Instead of hypnosis, Freud started using "free association," where patients would simply talk about whatever came to mind. Since then, catharsis has been a key part of many "talking therapies," where people talk about their feelings to feel better.

Sometimes, in modern psychotherapy, especially in Freudian psychoanalysis, the word cathexis is used. It describes the act of truly feeling the deep emotions connected to past events that were pushed away or ignored.

Social Catharsis

When people experience strong emotions, their bodies, actions, thoughts, and feelings can change. Often, people share these emotions with others as a way to release them. This is called social sharing.

If you share your feelings with someone, and they also feel something because of what you said, they might then share what they heard with other people. This is how emotions can spread through a group.

How Social Sharing Happens

Émile Durkheim, a thinker who studied society, suggested that social sharing of emotions happens in stages:

First, right after strong emotions happen, people share them. This sharing makes emotions stronger in everyone involved, creating a shared feeling.
Next, this leads to social effects, like people feeling more connected and their beliefs becoming stronger.
Finally, people might feel a renewed sense of trust in life, feel stronger, and have more self-confidence.

Effects of Catharsis

Many people believe that releasing emotions through catharsis can be helpful. Different ways of expressing feelings can help people recover emotionally. For example, "interpersonal emotion regulation" is when friends or family help someone feel better by using certain ways of talking.

Expressive writing, like keeping a journal, is another common way for people to experience personal catharsis. Studies have suggested that writing down thoughts and feelings can improve mental health.

There's been a lot of discussion about whether catharsis helps reduce anger. Some experts think that "blowing off steam" might make you feel less stressed for a short time. However, this feeling of relief might actually make you want to "blow off steam" more often in the future, leading to more outbursts. Other studies, though, have suggested that watching violent media might actually decrease anger during stressful times.

Some studies question how much social catharsis really helps. Some research found that memories people didn't share were no more upsetting than those they did share. Other studies also haven't clearly shown that sharing emotions socially leads to emotional recovery. For example, one study asked people to share a negative experience. Compared to a group that just talked about everyday things, there was no clear link between sharing emotions and feeling better.

Some studies have even found that social catharsis can have negative effects. For instance, one study found that expressive writing actually made it harder for some people to recover emotionally after a divorce. Similar findings have been seen with trauma recovery. Sometimes, groups try to help disaster victims by having them talk about their experiences, but some research has shown that this kind of "therapy" can sometimes have negative effects.

Catharsis facts for kids

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