CATHARSIS: DEFINITION, CONCEPT AND MEANINGS - GEOGRAFÍA - 2025

The catharsis is the process of releasing negative emotions. This term is used to define the therapeutic effect of the expression of emotions, as well as psychological therapies that use emotional release in moments of blockage.

The word catharsis derives from Cathars which means "pure." This was the name given to a religious group from the Middle Ages dissident from the Catholic Church, which reached its greatest diffusion in the south of France.

Later, this term was used by the medical field to refer to the physical cleansing of the body. In medicine, a purgative has a cathartic effect to the extent that it eliminates harmful elements such as parasites or poisoning.

Years later, Aristotle used this same term in his works to refer to a spiritual purification.

In fact, the well-known Greek philosopher strongly linked this term to literary tragedy, arguing that when a spectator saw a tragic play, he visualized his own weaknesses of spirit and his positions of conscience in the actors.

In this way, through what he called catharsis, the viewer freed himself from his negative emotions by seeing how other people had the same weaknesses and made the same mistakes as them.

Finally, at the end of the 19th century, the psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer adopted this term to refer to a type of psychotherapy that was based on the release of emotions, purifying the mind of deep-seated and harmful thoughts and feelings.

Catharsis and psychoanalysis

Catharsis was a method that was initially coupled with hypnosis and consisted of subjecting the patient to a state in which he recalled traumatic scenes. When the patient was subjected to this state and remembered the traumatic moments of his life, he was able to discharge all the emotions and the harmful effects that those traumas caused him.

Keep in mind that psychoanalysis relies on the subconscious (that information that is in our mind but that we are not aware of it) to explain psychological problems.

In this way, psychoanalysis therapies were linked to working on the subconscious and one of the methods was what is known as catharsis, which was usually applied once the patient was hypnotized.

Catharsis consists of inducing a state similar to hypnosis and exposing the patient to traumatic scenes so that he can release all those emotions, which according to psychoanalysts, were anchored in the subconscious and produced his discomfort.

In fact, Freud thought that psychological alterations occurred when we did not overcome some traumatic event in our lives and this was integrated into our subconscious in the form of maladaptive emotions and feelings.

That is why Freud postulated that the best way to cure psychopathologies (especially hysteria) was to induce the expression of those emotions that we are not aware that we have (catharsis).

However, the cathartic method has not always been linked to hypnosis, since Freud realized that many times he was not able to induce these states in very nervous patients.

In this way, he began to use catharsis independently of hypnosis, and consisted of talking about the traumatic events of a person's life so that he could release his innermost emotions.

How does catharsis occur?

If Freud's psychoanalytic theory and the catharsis method that he used to solve psychological problems have taught us anything, it is that the expression of emotions plays a fundamental role in people's psychological well-being.

In fact, in the society in which we live, the uncontrolled expression of emotions is often not well seen, since at the same time they play a communicative role.

People are often taught that it is not okay to cry in public or for people to see us emotionally badly. Many times we try to give an image of strength and well-being to others, without showing our weaknesses.

This often makes us make efforts to hide our emotional responses and we can even fall into the dynamics of repressing them and living with automatic pilot, trying to ignore the feelings we have on a daily basis.

Emotional catharsis

This can cause us to accumulate unexpressed emotions and feelings and reach a time when we can't take it anymore, we feel tired and we want to leave everything.

That day the emotions overflow, we stop being able to control them and our mood can be altered, even initiating a depressive state or another type of psychological alteration that causes us discomfort.

This is precisely what is known as emotional catharsis, the moment when your emotions overcome you. At that moment we feel controlled by emotions, without strength to face them and without security to continue with our lives and we lose our self-control.

This emotional catharsis is not harmful, but it is very beneficial for our mental health, since it allows us to release feelings through our emotional expressions.

Healthy life style

Healthier than performing an emotional catharsis is to avoid getting to the point where we need it.

In other words: it is much better to have an emotional lifestyle in which we can release our emotions, than to reach a point where we have accumulated so many that we have to release them all at once.

The release and expression of emotions has a high therapeutic value, so if we do it on a regular basis we will have a better psychological state, but if we never do it, our mental health can be greatly affected.

To enhance our emotional release, we must acquire a lifestyle that defends the expression of every emotion and feeling that we have at any time.

We have to achieve a mental state that allows us to experience each emotion in every expression, accepting it, valuing it and avoiding thoughts that prevent us from showing ourselves as a sentimental person.

Social catharsis

Cathartic theory from the point of view of social psychology is based on the role of aggressive scenes and violent content in the media. The exposure of violent scenes and content in the media has traditionally been debated and criticized.

There is a current that defends the opposite and postulates that the dissemination of violence in the media has a high psychological value for society. This current explains that the exposure of violence and aggressiveness in the media works as catharsis for people who consume or view said media.

According to what is postulated as "cathartic theory", violent scenes on television serve the viewer to release his aggressiveness without having to perform any aggressive behavior.

In other words: when a person watches violent scenes on television, simply by visualizing it, he releases his aggressive emotions, so that he can make an emotional release (a catharsis) of his aggressive feelings.

In this way, the exposure of violent content on television would be defended, since it favors the expression of aggressive emotions and makes it possible to avoid carrying out violent behavior.

What does social psychology say?

From social psychology, it used to be argued that violent and aggressive content could be a highly harmful element for the personal growth of children, and could incite the development of violence in childhood.

It is evident and widely recognized by professionals who investigate this type of phenomenon that the role of the media plays a very important role in the socialization of people.

In fact, the content that is exposed in the media participates in the internalization of values ​​and norms, which is why it acquires great relevance when it comes to predicting certain behaviors in the people who make up society.

In this way, as Bandura defends, it is understood that consumers of this type of media absorb the content that is exposed directly, so if violence appears on television, the people who see it will also become more violent.

References

1. Aristotle. The man of genius and melancholy. Problema XXX, 1. Barcelona: Quaderns Crema, 1996.
2. Freud S. "Psychoanalyse" und "Libido Theorie". Gesammte Werke XIII. 1923: 209-33.
3. Laín Entralgo P. The cathartic action of the tragedy. In: Laín Entralgo P. The adventure of reading. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1956. p. 48-90.
4. Klapper, Joseph. The social effects of mass communication. In introduction to the Study of Communication. Com. Ed. Iberoamerican Series. Mexico. 1986. Pp 165-172.