The psychotherapeutic meaning of the concept of K. lies in the emotional shock experienced by a person under the influence of the secondary experience of personal pathogenic and (or) stressful affects that served as a source of mental trauma, and in the subsequent adequate response, i.e., liberation from pathogenic symptoms. K. is both a purposeful process of an organized therapeutic effects, and the achieved state of purification of the suffering subject. The Latin synonym for K. is abreaction. The concept of K. (purification) was introduced into the description of states experienced by a person by Aristotle (384-322 BC), characterizing the impact of tragedy on the viewer, which accomplishes internal cleansing through compassion and fear. Ancient Greek tragedy has a mythological and theological basis, thus, the experience of a sacred action, participation in which is determined by the personal significance of what is happening, causes a reaction. Ancient theater follows the ritual actions of the mysteries, which, like the later liturgical practice of Christianity, promote experiences of a cathartic type. Visual perception and verbal expression (and self-expression) - active mechanisms K. Architectonics religious life at all times was built taking into account the organization's ability to tranquilize a community and (or) personal situation; This was served by both ancient initiations and Christian sacraments, especially confession.K. - a confessional approach to the treatment of mental trauma, using the abreaction of emotions associated with them. "Thanks to Breuer J. and especially Freud S., this type of psychoanalytic therapy was developed to the level special method. ... We allow the patient to speak out, help him choose the appropriate direction in cases where he seems to be silent about something important, demonstrate full understanding of what he is saying, and convince him of our own moral tolerance. Such “confession” often brings relief" (Jaspers K., 1997). According to Jung (Jung S. G.), we are not talking about an intellectual statement of traumatic experiences; it is necessary to "confirm such recognition with the heart" (Jung, 1988). In In the psychotherapeutic methods of various schools, a secular version of the institution of religious confession is used.An analogue is also intimate consoling conversations, i.e. a simple casual conversation with a friendly person about one’s problems and concerns, but the weaker the connection with the traditional rules of interpersonal communication (student with a mentor, a junior with elders, etc.), the more superficial the purification effect is. A different explanation of the mechanisms of K. is proposed by Atanasov from the standpoint of the teachings of I. P. Pavlov about higher nervous activity. K. is a physiological (respectively pathophysiological) process of reducing and normalizing excitation in the pathodynamic structure of inert overexcitation that occurs under the influence of psychotrauma. It can be the subject of study of both normal and pathological physiology. In the first case, this concerns minor psychological traumas that are experienced almost daily, but do not cause neurosis. Overexcitation of the functional structure quickly levels out and disappears. This daily K. is a conscious and well-known phenomenon. A stimulus that is extremely strong for certain individuals can become the reason for the emergence of pathodynamic foci with high inert excitation that persist long time and are the subject of pathophysiology. Not everything in the process of reducing arousal can be conscious, and not everything that is conscious is adequate (Atanasov At., 1969). With severe mental trauma in people predisposed to neurotic disorders, spontaneous K. does not occur, and that is why psychotherapeutic intervention is required. As a therapeutic technique, or, more precisely, as a principle of any technique, K. is used in many psychotherapeutic methods, united by the concept of “cathartic psychotherapy.” As one of the mechanisms of therapeutic effects, K. is included in such methods of psychotherapy as psychoanalysis, analytical psychology, psychodrama, group psychotherapy and many others. See. also Atanasov's autologocatharsis, Hypnotic abreaction, Cholakov's decapsulation, Artificial reproduction of affective experiences according to Krestnikov, Asatiani's method of reproductive experiences, Breuer's psychocathartic method, Pharmacological abreaction.
Definitions, meanings of words in other dictionaries:
Clinical psychology. Dictionary, ed. N.D. Tvorogova
Catharsis (Greek katharsis - cleansing) - associated with receiving pleasure, the process and result of a cleansing, facilitating and ennobling effect on a person various factors, causing corresponding experiences and effects. The concept of K., apparently for the first time...
Big dictionary esoteric terms - edited by Doctor of Medical Sciences Stepanov A.M.
(Greek: cleansing), peculiar internal state, which, through the experience of high joy or other forms of high beingness, cleanses the human soul, promotes the penetration of the spirit into the more subtle planes of the universe, into the more subtle cosmic structures of the Universe, including...
Philosophical Dictionary
(Greek katharsis - purification) - associated with receiving pleasure, the process and result of the cleansing, facilitating and ennobling influence on a person of various factors that cause corresponding experiences and effects. The concept of K. was first used in ancient Greek...
Philosophical Dictionary
(Greek word meaning cleansing): state of mind, caused by a work of art, which, as the word itself indicates, cleanses the soul of its passions. Thus, according to Aristotle, the spectator watching a tragedy spills out his animal or criminal inclinations...
The latest philosophical dictionary
CATHARIS (Greek katharsis - cleansing) - associated with receiving pleasure, the process and result of the cleansing, facilitating and ennobling influence on a person of various factors that cause corresponding experiences and effects The concept of K was first used in ...
Psychological Dictionary
When studying psychology and other areas, many are interested in the question of what catharsis is. The concept itself appeared in ancient Greek philosophy. It is described as a process of acute negative experience, which is long-lasting, but upon reaching a peak point, turns into a positive one.
What does catharsis mean?
What catharsis means depends on the aspect in which the term is used. As a rule, it denotes the process of cleansing. The concept was proposed by Aristotle in his work Poetics. The main characters were in a state of internal purification, which is aimed at achieving harmony of soul and body. In various teachings and practices, it was mentioned by many philosophers, psychologists and psychoanalysts.
Completion of the catharsis process involves the release or repressed affect. The process of catharsis consists of next stages and, depending on the situation, a person must be able to control himself:
- accumulation of negative experiences;
- reaching the peak of emotions;
- transformation negative energy into a positive one.
Catharsis - psychology
Catharsis is a special method in psychology that allows you to achieve emotional and sensory release. The technique allows you to achieve results that will have an impact on a person:
- reduction or complete elimination;
- weakening the state of frustration;
- better understanding inner world and needs;
- general beneficial effect on the individual.
Some psychologists argue that catharsis is an art, and that this is confirmed in practice. It is believed that the term in psychology appeared thanks to Sigmund Freud, who proposed the cathartic method, which involves transferring memories and feelings into consciousness with negative energy, which subsequently leads to emotional release.
Catharsis in psychoanalysis
In psychoanalytic practices, the use of the cathartic method is common. It was created to analyze and identify the motives of human behavior. Emotional catharsis is considered as a set of ways to identify a person’s experiences and actions that are caused by unconscious motives. The techniques allow us to identify repressed ideas, which contributes to their effective elimination. The use of the method for psychotherapeutic purposes involves the following techniques:
- free associations;
- interpretation of words;
- slips of the tongue.
Catharsis in philosophy
Catharsis - in philosophy, this represents the achievement of cult purity. Its goal is to prepare for a meeting with sacred reality, through eliminating different types temptations. Spiritual cleansing occurs through the following emotions expressed by a person:
- compassion for your neighbor;
- empathy;
- fear of losses and negativity.
The term of ancient Greek philosophy and ethics provides for emotional unloading and mystical purification of the soul. A person gets rid of manifestations of sensuality and bodily dirt, which are passions at certain moments in life. This concept was mentioned by Aristotle, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Plato and many other philosophers, which can be observed in their teachings.
Mechanism of catharsis
Achieving catharsis requires the presence of certain factors. A person must go through several stages, including:
- recognition of the need for changes in life;
- willingness to overcome your own fears;
- achieving a calm state;
- sensory deprivation;
- a conscious decision to overcome unpleasant emotional sensations;
- admitting failure.
The effect of catharsis occurs only when a person consciously applies the technique and strives to solve his intrapersonal problems. In order to achieve catharsis, perform several manipulations.
- Focus all your attention on the problem at hand.
- Recreate exactly how you felt.
- Concentrate on those experiences that have reached a peak point.
How to achieve catharsis?
The state of catharsis occurs as a result of hard work on oneself. As a rule, to achieve it, you must have some experience in psychology or psychoanalysis. An experienced psychologist or psychotherapist can use the presented method to identify negative emotions, which can be hidden very deeply. To do this, he must consciously desire a solution to the intrapersonal conflict.
As a rule, initially a person experiences fear of going through cases that were negative in nature. He also does not want to make a conscious movement towards frustration. The longer he does not want to accept what happened, the further away the onset of catharsis is from him. As soon as there is a desire to move forward, problems will gradually be solved, and emotional catharsis will be brought closer, which will allow one to achieve harmony.
Catharsis it is customary to call the process of powerful negative experience, which, having reached its highest point, transforms into positive, no less acute sensation. In the human soul, like in a cauldron, passions boil and seethe; as a result of such work, dark and difficult experiences at some point turn into their opposite - into pure and noble thoughts, bright feelings.
This concept was first proposed in Ancient Greece . In the philosophy of art, catharsis was understood as primarily " cleansing", most often - from a feeling of guilt.
Later, the concept of catharsis was studied by such advanced psychologists as Z. Freud and L. Vygotsky.
In addition, the word catharsis is quite acceptable for use in aesthetics, as well as in psychology of art,” catharsis is often mentioned when describing the reaction of enthusiastic spectators to a performance.
Psychotherapy means by catharsis a sharp release of psychic energy.
Modern psychologists distinguish two types of catharsis: household and high. At everyday person can through suffering, tears and bitterness come to forgiveness, to rethinking one’s problems. High catharsis implies deep empathy for works of art, involvement in the tragedy shown by the master.
The geniuses of psychoanalysis have always been interested in catharsis and tried to understand its phenomenon. For the first time in specialized literature it is mentioned in the work of J. Breuer and S. Freud "Studies in Hysteria". The method, which was called the term "catharsis", involved introducing patients into a state hypnosis, while in which a person recalled long-forgotten childhood sensations and memories, often tragic. Often similar method allowed the patient to be relieved of the symptoms of hysteria. Freud believed that only with the help of catharsis, through hypnosis, can a traumatic experience be brought from the subconscious into consciousness and thereby defuse the once-obtained state of affect, and therefore remove the symptom of mental illness.
Modern psychotherapists understand catharsis as release of emotions and the subsequent release of accumulated tension. In order to “free” the patient from difficult experiences, the specialist tries to “talk” him, encourages him to express his fears, dark feelings and oppressive emotions. Having said what oppresses him, a person feels enormous relief and is overwhelmed by positive experiences. Actually, this is catharsis in the modern sense of the word. Aristotle also explained catharsis as " mental release".
Catharsis can occur under the influence of art, after sincere prayer, listening to a piece of music, or performing some rituals. Strong passion, emotional excitement flows into blissful, pleasant sensations, enlightenment, a feeling of purification. By and large, the ultimate goal of all art is to evoke catharsis in a person, to touch his soul with a cleansing hand, to remove the heaviness from it, to direct his experiences in a positive direction.
Translated from Greek language catharsis means "purification". Initially, this concept meant a certain emotional shock, which was subjectively experienced as internal cleansing. This state arose among spectators of the ancient tragedy, experiencing the fate and death of the main character. Catharsis - what is it today?
Catharsis as self-improvement
This concept denotes an acute negative experience, reaching an extreme point where it sharply changes its pole and turns into a positive one. Catharsis is associated with an explosion, a storm, a flurry of emotions that fall on a person. It is as if he is being cleansed from the oppression of negative experiences. Catharsis, the significance of which was considered primarily in art, can give a person some impetus for further development. By experiencing not real events, but their symbolic image in works of art, the individual transfers himself into these events and passes through the corresponding emotions.
Catharsis in psychology
Usually we do not give vent to our negative experiences - they are repressed and continue to oppress us in the unconscious, causing many painful, psychosomatic symptoms. From the point of view of psychoanalysis, liberation from illness depends on passing through Psychotherapy consists of resurrecting negative memories into which the client plunges into during the work and allows himself to experience them. Thus, catharsis - what is it if not an ascent to paradise through wandering in the underworld? A person works through a negative feeling until he releases all the mental energy that it contains. Such work is associated with very high stress, since a person is not always ready to experience long-repressed emotions.
Catharsis - what is it in Freud's theory
Sigmund Freud investigated a case of hysteria and sought to eliminate the symptoms of this nervous disease. In the process of work, he came to the conclusion that the symptoms could have formed as a result of the repression of strong negative experiences into the unconscious. Instead of working through emotions, psychic energy was directed toward creating painful symptoms as a defense against awareness of deep, forgotten experiences. The patient was put into hypnosis and the oppressive memory was “pulled out” into the sphere of consciousness. The emotional charge associated with the memory was processed, and an affective release occurred. The negative experience was released, so the neurotic symptoms soon disappeared, because there was no longer a need for them.
Thus, immersion in a traumatic situation allows you to release the emotions associated with it and experience catharsis. What kind of state this is can be understood by remembering your feelings after an intense, touching film that evoked many different emotions. can be experienced as a feeling of devastation, slight sadness and at the same time bliss. It should be remembered that in order for the condition to improve, sometimes you have to overcome great difficulties and great stress.
Culturology. Dictionary-reference book
Catharsis
(Greek katharsis - purification)
a term of ancient aesthetics that serves to designate one of the essential moments of the aesthetic impact of art on a person - purification through compassion and empathy.
spiritual cleansing through compassion, fear, empathy for the heroes of the tragedy.
Pedagogical terminological dictionary
Catharsis
(from Greek katharsis - cleansing)
the process and result of the cleansing and ennobling influence on a person of various factors that cause corresponding experiences and affects. K. is associated with pleasure. The traditional concept of "K." developed in ancient Greek philosophy of art. Subsequently, K. became widespread in psychological science (S. Freud, L.S. Vygotsky, etc.).
(Bim-Bad B.M. Pedagogical encyclopedic dictionary. - M., 2002. P. 114)
Dictionary of linguistic terms
Catharsis
(Old Greekκαθάρσίς, purification)
Aristotle (384-322 BC) has spiritual enlightenment and purification of the spectator of the tragedy, who has just experienced fear, anger, compassion and other strong feelings;
this same concept had numerous other interpretations in other philosophical systems;
K. in psychoanalysis is a method of psychotherapy in which the patient experiences strong feelings, deep, cleansing amazement, thereby helping to get rid of obsessive fears and bad habits.
Ancient world. Dictionary-reference book
Catharsis
(Greekκάθαρσις - cleansing)
the concept used by Aristotle when defining tragedy, which “through compassion and fear, purifies such passions” (Poetics. Chapter 6). This brief and insufficiently clear statement gave rise to many interpretations, including moral (K. educates the viewer), psychiatric (gives mental relief), medical-ritual (heals with similar ones), intellectual (frees from erroneous opinions).
(Ancient culture: literature, theater, art, philosophy, science. Dictionary-reference book / Edited by V.N. Yarkho. M., 1995.)
Gasparov. Records and extracts
Catharsis
♦ “The goal of rhetoric doubles the goal of poetry: the accuser instills fear in those listening, and the defender evokes compassion. So that the viewer leaves the theater, mentally reborn, but with folded arms, and from the court - not reborn, but having done a just deed. Poetry is mental gymnastics, rhetoric - spiritual practice."
♦ I. Babel to A. Slonim December 26, 1927: “My father waited for 15 years for the mood to go to the theater. He died without ever having been to the theater.”
Philosophical Dictionary (Comte-Sponville)
Catharsis
Catharsis
♦ Catharsis
Translated from Greek, catharsis means purification, liberation by removing everything that interferes or pollutes. Thus, according to Aristotle, tragedy is the catharsis of passions; according to Moliere, comedy is the catharsis of our weaknesses, worthy of ridicule; According to some modern psychoanalysts, psychoanalysis is the catharsis of our emotions or psychological traumas. I strongly doubt that in the first, second, and third cases such purification is sufficient.
Aesthetics. encyclopedic Dictionary
Catharsis
(Greek katharsis- cleansing)
a category of psychological aesthetics that characterizes the process of perceiving a work of art and the strong internal shock that occurs and has a beneficial, cleansing effect on the state of the human soul. As an aesthetic experience, catharsis is an attribute primarily of theatrical and dramatic art. It occurs at the moment when the hero of the tragedy experiences the final catastrophe, and the viewer, who is in emotional contact with him, finds himself in a state of mixed affect of fear, sympathy, and compassion. The storm of experiences in his soul ultimately leads to the effect of internal cleansing, when a person, after some time, begins to feel renewed, filled with new feelings, thoughts, strength, ready for new achievements.
At the time of Pythagoras, the ancient Greeks believed that the soul is capable of becoming clogged, contaminated by dark desires, vicious lusts and therefore needs periodic cleansing procedures through a variety of influences - mysterial, musical, theatrical, etc. The experience of the state of catharsis has a double meaning. healing power, healing both soul and body.
Aristotle (« Poetics") created the psychological and aesthetic concept of catharsis in its connection with the perception of the spectacle of theatrical drama-tragedy. The difficult ending of the tragedy, in which main character As a rule, it dies and shakes the viewer to the core. He is horrified by what happened, grieves for the deceased, and laments the injustice of fate. But the most amazing thing is that all these seemingly difficult and gloomy experiences do not plunge him into a state of depression. The paradoxical effect of tragedy lies in its ability to generate catharsis. The viewer moves through darkness towards light. His soul, having experienced a feeling of despair, suddenly soars upward and is filled with strength. The heaviness is replaced by a feeling of relief. Fear and compassion are replaced by liberation, the cleansing of the soul from everything dark, heavy, harmful that burdened it before. The spectacle seems to wash away the moral “garbage” that has accumulated there from the spaces of the inner “I”.
The phenomenon of catharsis occupies an important place in modern psychology. Psychoanalysts actively use the practice therapeutic effects on the psyche of patients, as a result of which the pathogenic experiences that caused mental suffering go away and the person begins to experience noticeable relief. At the same time, it is permissible to attract various forms artistic creativity. So, in the early 1990s. In the Russian press (“Izvestia” dated September 17, 1992), a message appeared about the 45-year-old Armenian psychiatrist Nazloyan. Fascinated by sculpture, he sculpted portraits of his patients. Over 15 years of medical practice, he created 400 portraits. While working, he talked with a mentally ill person. In the process of such communication, psychological contact arose and alienation disappeared. This was extremely important for the patient, whose sick soul was lonely, cut off from the world, as if in solitary confinement, in the prison cell of his inner world. The doctor invited the patient to talk about himself, about his life and his suffering, arguing that then the disease would come out of him and turn into a portrait. Each sculpture took an average of 50 hours. At the end of the work, catharsis occurred, coinciding with the moment when the portrait acquired eyes. The patients at these moments experienced the most difficult experiences: some cried, others laughed, others were frightened, others were indignant or fell into hysterics. Such a flash of feelings testified to the real liberation of the soul; she was healed, if not from the whole illness, then from a significant part of it.