CATHARSIS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Catharsis

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/kəθˈɑrsəs/ Listen

noun

Catharsis n. (Med.)

A natural or artificial purgation of any passage, as of the mouth, bowels, etc.

(Psychotherapy) The process of relieving an abnormal excitement by reestablishing the association of the emotion with the memory or idea of the event that first caused it, and of eliminating it by complete expression (called the abreaction).

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Etymology of 'Catharsis'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Catharsis" Quotes from Famous Books

... given at once and in the ordinary case, stimulants are indicated. If marked distress is present, morphin is given and where there is much rise of temperature, cold drinking water is offered in abundance and catharsis is enhanced by enemata. Locally, hot applications are of benefit. Hot towels or cotton held in position by bandages and kept soaked with warm water will relieve pain and stimulate resolution. Diuretics may be of benefit and anodyne applications are ...

— Lameness of the Horse - Veterinary Practitioners' Series, No. 1 • John Victor Lacroix

... language with pleasurable accessories, each kind brought in separately in the parts of the work; in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions. Here by 'language with pleasurable accessories' I mean that with rhythm and harmony or song superadded; and by 'the kinds separately' I mean that some portions are worked out with verse only, and others ...

— The Poetics • Aristotle

... travel by land Gilbert commends a preliminary catharsis, frequent bathing, the avoidance of repletion of all kinds, an abundance of sleep and careful protection from the extremes of both heat and cold. The strange waters may be corrected by a dash of vinegar. Some travelers, he tells us, carry with them a package of their native soil, a few ...

— Gilbertus Anglicus - Medicine of the Thirteenth Century • Henry Ebenezer Handerson

... Aristotle were as absolute as the theorems of Euclid. His polemic against the French school is chiefly directed to claiming a place in poetry for the verisimilar, as against absolute historical exactitude. He held the universal to be a sort of mean of what appears in the individual, the catharsis was in his view a transformation of the passions into virtuous dispositions, and he held the duty of poetry to be inspiration of the love of virtue. He followed Winckelmann in believing that the expression of physical beauty was the supreme object of painting. This ...

— Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic • Benedetto Croce

... in language with pleasurable accessories, each kind brought in separately in the parts of the work; in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions. Here by 'language with pleasurable accessories' I mean that with rhythm and harmony or song superadded; and by 'the kinds separately' I mean that some portions are worked out with verse only, and others ...

— The Poetics • Aristotle