Catharsis, the purification or purgation of the emotions (especially pity and fear) primarily through art. In criticism, catharsis is a metaphor used by Aristotle in the Poetics to describe the effects of true tragedy on the spectator.

The first essential to creating a good tragedy is that it should maintain unity of plot. This means that the plot must move from beginning to end according to a tightly organized sequence of necessary or probable events.

Anagnorisis is a change from ignorance to knowledge. This discovery will bring love and happiness to characters who learn of good fortune, and hatred and misery to those who discover unhappy truths. The best kind of anagnorisis accompanies peripeteia. That is, a reversal of fortune effects a discovery or vice versa.

Catharsis allows you to express anger as aggressively as you wish to maintain your psychological health. However, the scientific society believes it often justifies overreacting and hurts our psychological health.

A catharsis is an emotional release. According to psychoanalytic theory, this emotional release is linked to a need to relieve unconscious conflicts. For example, experiencing stress over a work-related situation may cause feelings of frustration and tension..

Along with fear, pity is one of the emotions aroused in the audience of a tragedy. We respond with pity, Aristotle seems to suggest, when we as members of the audience identify with the tragic hero’s suffering. Pity and fear are “purged” in the process of catharsis.

Aristotle distinguished six elements of tragedy: “plot, characters, verbal expression, thought, visual adornment, and song-composition.” Of these, PLOT is the most important.

Catharsis refers to an emotional release for the characters in a literary work, or an emotional release for the audience of the work. Playing the piano is a catharsis for a tired, busy mother after a long day of work. Examples of Catharsis from Literature and Film. 1.

Laughter, which is the most powerful cathartic process and the least threatening in many respects, leads the way in easing controls on emotion and often opens the door to crying and deep anger.

Abstract and Figures. The idea that crying is a cathartic experience, leading to relief from distress, has deep roots. however, empirical evidence for catharsis after crying is mixed. Crying episodes that featured the suppression of crying or the experiencing of shame from crying were less likely to be cathar-tic.

When used by modern psychologists, catharsis means discharging negative emotions to relieve intense anxiety, stress, anger, or fear. Psychoanalysis still focuses on getting over negative events and feelings, but not necessarily in a cathartic way.

The so-called “cathartic method” was a treatment for psychiatric disorders developed during 1881-1882 by Joseph Breuer with his patient “Anna O.” The aim was to enable the hypnotized patient to recollect the traumatic event at the root of a particular symptom and thereby eliminate the associated pathogenic memory …

1. Move your body. Take a walk, go for a run, do jumping jacks.
2. Progressive muscle relaxation. If mobility is an issue, try progressive muscle relaxation.
3. Make some noise.
4. Purge your words.
5. Act out on inanimate objects.
6. Breathe fire.
7. Get cathartic the old-fashioned way.
8. Make it an ongoing practice, too.

Catharsis is a greek word meaning “to purify”. Aristotle describes catharsis as the purge of the pity and fear which are aroused in the viewer of a (good, well composed) tragedy; a purification that leaves him/ her with a satisfying, calm, pleasurable feeling.

However, culture also influences emotion in various ways. Culture constrains how emotions are felt and expressed in a given cultural context. It shapes the ways people should feel in certain situations and the ways people should express their emotions.

SYNONYMS. purging, purgation, purification, cleansing, release, relief, emotional release, freeing, deliverance, exorcism, ridding. abreaction. rare depuration, lustration.