catharsis means A release of emotional tension after an overwhelming vicarious experience, resulting in the purging or purification of the emotions, as through watching a dramatic production (especially a tragedy).
catharsis is pronounced /kəˈθɑːsɪs/.
Why “catharsis” is a great word
The release and purification of pent-up emotions, especially pity and fear, often through vicarious experience such as witnessing a dramatic tragedy. From Ancient Greek κάθαρσις (kátharsis, "cleansing, purging"), from καθαίρω (kathaírō, "I cleanse"), coined in the dramatic-emotional sense by Aristotle. Unlike "cathartic" (an adjective describing the agent that induces release) or "purgation" (a more clinical term for evacuation, devoid of artistic resonance), catharsis is the profound result itself. It is the collective, shuddering silence after the hero falls, the tears shed for a fictional death that lightens a private grief, and the strange, hollow calm that follows a storm of feeling—the soul’s brief, hard-won equilibrium, washed clean.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek κάθαρσις (kátharsis, “cleansing, purging”), from καθαίρω (kathaírō, “I cleanse”). Coined in the dramatic-emotional sense by Aristotle.
noun
- A release of emotional tension after an overwhelming vicarious experience, resulting in the purging or purification of the emotions, as through watching a dramatic production (especially a tragedy).“True, as the show has entered its later years, there have been more inspired moments of catharsis, but fewer unpredictable arcs and story beats, as a narrative nearing its conclusion is no longer attempting to shock.”
- Any release of emotional tension to the same effect, more widely.
- A purification or cleansing, especially emotional.
- A therapeutic technique to relieve tension by reestablishing the association of an emotion with the memory or idea of the event that first caused it, and then eliminating it by complete expression (called the abreaction).
- Purging of the digestive system.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- pathos 84% match — The quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, especially that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality. vs catharsis →
- expiation 83% match — An act of atonement for a sin or wrongdoing. vs catharsis →
- hamartia 83% match — The tragic flaw of the protagonist in a literary tragedy. vs catharsis →
- anagnorisis 82% match — The moment in the plot of a drama in which the hero makes a discovery that explains previously unexplained events or situations; a denouement. vs catharsis →
- tragedy 82% match — A drama or similar work, in which the main character is brought to ruin or otherwise suffers the extreme consequences of some tragic flaw or weakness of character. vs catharsis →
- tragic 82% match — Causing great sadness or suffering. vs catharsis →
- purge 82% match — To clean thoroughly; to rid of impurities; to cleanse; to clear of (something unwanted). vs catharsis →
- expiate 82% match — To atone or make reparation for. vs catharsis →