catharsis
/kəˈθɑːsɪs/ · noun
Meaning
- 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).
- Any release of emotional tension to the same effect, more widely.
- A purification or cleansing, especially emotional.
- 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).
- Purging of the digestive system.
Etymology / origin
No prose etymology has been added yet.
No ancestor words have been linked yet.
Related words
Descendant words
No descendant words have been linked yet.