Translated from Greek, catharsis means"cleansing". Initially, this concept meant a certain emotional shock, which was subjectively experienced as an internal purification. This condition arose in the audience of the ancient tragedy, experiencing the fate and death of the protagonist. Catharsis - what is it today?
Catharsis as self-cultivation
This concept refers to an acute negative.an experience that reaches the extreme point where it abruptly changes the pole and turns into a positive one. Catharsis is associated with an explosion, a storm, a squall of emotions that fall upon a person. He seems to be cleared of the oppression of negative experiences. Catharsis, the value of which was considered primarily in art, is able to give a person some kind of impetus to further development. Experiencing not real events, but their symbolic image in works of art, the individual transfers himself to these events and passes through himself the corresponding emotions.
Catharsis in psychology
Usually we do not give out our negativeexperiences - they are repressed and continue to oppress us in the sphere of the unconscious, causing many painful, psychosomatic symptoms. From the point of view of psychoanalysis, the release of the disease depends on passing through these emotions. Psychotherapy is the resurrection of negative memories, in which the client is dipped in the process of work and allows himself to go through them. Thus, catharsis - what is this, if not the ascent to heaven through wandering in the underworld? A person works through a negative feeling until he releases all the psychic energy that is contained in it. Such work is associated with a very strong tension, because a person is not always ready to experience long-repressed emotions.
Catharsis - what is it in Freud's theory
Sigmund Freud investigated the case of hysteria andsought to eliminate the symptoms of this nervous disease. In the process, he came to the conclusion that the symptoms could have been formed as a result of driving out strong negative experiences into the unconscious. Instead of working through emotions, psychic energy was aimed at creating painful symptoms as a defense against awareness of deep, forgotten experiences. The patient was put into hypnosis and "dragged out" an oppressive memory into the sphere of consciousness. The emotional charge associated with the memory, was worked out, there was an affective discharge. The negative experience was released, so the neurotic symptoms soon disappeared, because they were no longer necessary.
Thus, immersion in a traumatic situationallows you to release the emotions associated with it and survive the catharsis. What kind of condition you can understand, remembering your feelings after a tense touching film that caused a lot of different emotions. Subjectively, this can be experienced as a feeling of desolation, a slight sadness and at the same time bliss. It should be remembered that in order for the condition to improve, sometimes it is necessary to overcome great difficulties and strong tension.
