Translated from the ancient Greek word "catharsis" means purification, liberation, exaltation. The concept of catharsis is very important for world culture, art and philosophy, but in different eras, thinkers of different directions understood catharsis differently, the meaning of the word changed. The main contribution to the development of this concept was made by the philosophers of antiquity and the Enlightenment, and then it was adopted by psychologists.
Antiquity: how it all began
This concept itself appeared, most likely, in the writings of Aristotle. According to ancient ideas, catharsis is a pleasure that a person receives from watching a tragedy. The ancient Greek philosopher introduces this concept, describing the impact of tragedy on the viewer. Tragic pleasure is pleasure, the sources of which are compassion and fear, that is, painful feelings. How can they give a person a pleasant sensation?
The fact is that the viewer is compassionate to the hero of the tragedy, and compassion is a mechanism that shows or strengthens connections between people, shows their common nature. When a person feels compassion, he feels his unity with other people: everyone is capable of experiencing such feelings and conditions, which means they are able to understand each other.
The meaning of the word "catharsis" in the Enlightenment
About what catharsis is, many philosophers and aesthetics of the XVIII century actively argued. Much attention was paid to this issue by the French poet and playwright Pierre Cornell. He saw the essence of the tragic purification as follows. The tragedy shows the unfortunate, deeply suffering hero, and the viewer sympathizes with him. At the same time, the viewer is afraid: all the troubles that overtake the hero of the tragedy and any other person in general can happen to everyone, including the viewer himself. Fear leads him to the desire to avoid the same misfortune. To do this, you need to get rid of what led the hero of the tragedy to collapse and suffering - from uncontrollable colossal passions - anger, envy, ambition, hatred. Here catharsis is the deliverance from passions that lead to unhappiness, or their purification, curbing and submission to the requirements of the mind.
Parallel to this understanding of catharsis, another, hedonic, developed. According to him, catharsis is the highest aesthetic experience that is perceived directly for pleasure.
Catharsis in Psychologists
This unusual state was investigated not only by philosophy, but also by psychology. Sigmund Freud introduced his patients into a hypnotic state in which they relived past personal stresses and pathogenic affects, which resulted in mental trauma, but now with the subsequent adequate reaction. In science, catharsis is also one of the methods of psychotherapy, which is aimed at cleansing the psyche from hidden deep conflicts and alleviating the suffering of patients.
So, catharsis is a tragic purification under the influence of strong negative experiences - for example, fear or compassion. It leads to the elimination of affects or their harmonization.
