Catharsis (redirected from Ecstasis)

catharsis

Purging or purification of emotions through art. The term is derived from the Greek katharsis (“purgation,” “cleansing”), a medical term used by Aristotle as a metaphor to describe the effects of dramatic tragedy on the spectator: by arousing vicarious pity and terror, tragedy directs the spectator's own anxieties outward and, through sympathetic identification with the tragic protagonist, purges them.

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catharsis

1. (in Aristotelian literary criticism) the purging or purification of the emotions through the evocation of pity and fear, as in tragedy

2. Psychoanal the bringing of repressed ideas or experiences into consciousness, thus relieving tensions

3. purgation, esp of the bowels

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catharsis [kə′thär·səs]

(psychology)

Release of tension by releasing deep-seated emotions or reliving a traumatic experience.

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Catharsis 

a term used in ancient Greek philosophy and aesthetics to designate the essence of aesthetic experience. The concept dates back to Pythagorean philosophy, which urged the use of music for the purification of the soul. According to the Stoics, Heraclitus spoke of purgation by fire. Plato taught that catharsis was the freeing of the soul from the body and from passions or pleasures. Aristotle spoke of the educative and purifying significance of music, through which man gains relief and is purged of his emotions and desires, experiencing an “innocent joy.” In the absence of further clarification, Aristotle’s famous definition of tragedy as the purging of emotions (Poetics, ch. 6) has given rise to controversy over what is meant by catharsis. G. E. Lessing interpreted it ethically; the 19th-century German scholar J. Bernays defined it in medical terms as something that brings relief; and the German E. Zeller saw it as a purely aesthetic phenomenon. Science has been unable to definitively resolve the problem of the essence of Aristotelian catharsis, since it is unclear whether catharsis ought to be understood simply as the elimination of particular emotions or as their harmonization. The Austrian doctor and psychologist S. Freud used the term to designate a method of psychotherapy.

REFERENCES

Losev, A. F. Ocherki antichnogo simvolizma i mifologii, vol. 1. Moscow, 1930. Pages 728–34. (Contains bibliography.)
Akhmanov, A. S., and F. A. Petrovskii. Introductory essay in Aristotle, Ob iskusstve poezii. Moscow, 1957.
Boekel, C. W. van. Katharsis. Utrecht, 1957. (Bibliography.)

A. F. LOSEV