catharsis

English

WOTD – 17 January 2007

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek , from . Coined in the dramatic-emotional sense by Aristotle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəˈθɑːsɪs/
• IPA^(key): /kəˈθɑːɹˌsɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

catharsis (countable and uncountable, plural catharses)

1. (drama) 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).
   • 2019 April 14, Alex McLevy, “Winter is here on Game Of Thrones' final season premiere (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club‎^[1]:

     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.

2. Any release of emotional tension to the same effect, more widely.
3. A purification or cleansing, especially emotional.
4. (psychology) A therapeutic technique to relieve tension by re-establishing 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).
5. (medicine) Purging of the digestive system.

Derived terms

• hemocatharsis

Related terms

• cathartic

Translations

in drama, a release of emotional tension

• Arabic: تَنْفِيس m (tanfīs)
• Bulgarian: катарзис m (katarzis)
• Catalan: catarsi (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 導瀉／导泻, 导泻 (dǎoxiè), 宣洩／宣泄 (zh) (xuānxiè), 宣泄 (zh) (xuānxiè)

• Danish: katarsis
• Faroese: reinleikan f
• French: catharsis (fr) f
• German: Katharsis (de) f
• Greek: κάθαρση (el) f (kátharsi)

  Ancient:

• Hebrew: קתרזיס (he) m (qatarzis)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: katarzis (hu)
• Icelandic: geðhreinsun f
• Ido: katarso (io)
• Italian: catarsi (it) f
• Japanese: カタルシス (katarushisu)
• Portuguese: catarse (pt) f
• Russian: ката́рсис (ru) m (katársis), ка́тарсис (ru) m (kátarsis)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: катарза f

  Roman: katarza (sh) f

• Spanish: catarsis (es) f
• Swedish: katarsis (sv)

any release of emotional tension

• Catalan: catarsi (ca) f
• Danish: katarsis
• French: défoulement (fr) m
• German: Katharsis (de) f
• Greek: κάθαρση (el) f (kátharsi)
• Hungarian: katarzis (hu)
• Italian: catarsi (it) f
• Japanese: カタルシス (katarushisu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: catarse (pt) f
• Russian: ката́рсис (ru) m (katársis), ка́тарсис (ru) m (kátarsis)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: катарза f

  Roman: katarza (sh) f

• Spanish: catarsis (es) f

a therapeutic technique to relieve tension

• Czech: katarze f
• French: défoulement (fr) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: κάθαρση (el) f (kátharsi)
• Hungarian: katarzis (hu)

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