What is Catharsis?
If you’ve ever experienced a wave of relief or release after a meaningful conversation or good cry, that feeling is called catharsis. This powerful release can be a tool for processing emotions and alleviating distress. When successful, catharsis comes with insight, integration, and positive changes.
When we experience stress and trauma, the unmetabolized or unprocessed energy generated by these experiences is trapped or frozen in time. At a certain point, this energy becomes overwhelming, as if you will “explode” unless it is released. One way or another, the system finds a way to release this energy to achieve catharsis. This is related to an understanding that emotion is “Energy in Motion - E-motion”. When it is repressed, it cannot be fully expressed. Releasing emotions, therefore, involves a freeing up or liberation that allows this energy to move where it is needed. Where it is needed is in your day-to-day activities and the things that move you from surviving to thriving, rather than striving but never arriving.
The Meaning of Catharsis.
The word catharsis comes from the Greek katharsis, meaning cleansing, purging, or purification. The most historically distant use of the word catharsis can be traced back to ancient Greek drama, where it referred to the emotional release that audiences experienced through the unfolding of tragic events on stage. This was later adopted by Freud’s colleague Josef Breuer, who was the first to use the term to describe a therapeutic technique for hysteria. This technique involved having individuals recall traumatic experiences while under hypnosis. By expressing emotions that had been repressed, Breuer found that his patients experienced relief from their symptoms. Freud believed that individuals could achieve catharsis by bringing these unconscious feelings and memories to light through psychoanalytic techniques. This focus on making the unconscious conscious is a major aim of all psychoanalytic traditions.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, you’ll call it fate and it will rule you.”
In many ways, the emotional release the audience experiences through the unfolding events on stage is akin to what occurs in our intrapsychic world throughout the healing process. As a natural process of psychological development, and augmented by trauma, we become fragmented. These fragments organize into “subpersonalities” with their own perceptions, emotions, sensations, and behaviors - all functioning to protect us somehow. This is similar to the common experience of the “angel” on one shoulder and the “devil” on the other. And explains why we have such diverse reactions in various circumstances. Many of these “subpersonalities” operate outside of our conscious awareness, yet drive our proactive and reactive behaviors in various circumstances. These conflicts are charged with emotion and often frozen in the past. Catharsis is all about the release of this emotional charge so that the unfolding events on the stage can be effectively processed and integrated into a more cohesive story.
These perspectives are supported by the most recent evidence-based developments in psychotherapeutic literature, especially from Internal Family Systems, Compassionate Inquiry, and Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment, among others. A main difference is the language they use.
Catharsis in Day-to-Day Life.
Outside of psychotherapy, catharsis is experienced in those moments of insight or the experience of finding closure. Some individuals experience catharsis following a traumatic or stressful event, such as a health issue, job loss, accident, death of a loved one, or divorce, among other things. Individuals may experience a moment of emotional release when they are able to process what they’ve been through and look forward with a greater sense of agency, wisdom, and potential. The ability to process is key! What’s typically required is enough safety to metabolize the unprocessed energy of emotion. This is why it typically occurs when you are in a safe place or with a safe person.
Techniques to Support Catharsis.
While catharsis can happen while you’re in therapy, it’s also possible to experience this release in other contexts. What follows are some tools to support catharsis:
Talking with a Trusted Other. Discussing what you’re experiencing with a friend or family member who can hold the space for you as you process is an effective way to achieve catharsis. We are relational by nature and being able to reach out to someone who bring presence and compassion can help metabolize unprocessed emotions.
Exercise. The physical demands of exercise can help significantly work through strong unprocessed emotions and constructively release them.
Creativity. Artwork is a powerful vehicle for expressing unprocessed emotions, whether this is through appreciation or creating yourself.
Expressive Journaling. Writing is a very effective tool that not only provides the space to release emotions but also helps you integrate them. When you journal by hand, you activate both hemispheres - allowing for expression (right side) and structure (left side).
Bodily-based Support. Unprocessed or unmetabolized emotions find expression through the body. This occurs through the adrenal glands, gut, immune system, thyroid, metabolic, and micronutrient environment. Having the body investigated (e.g., through labs and diagnostics) and providing appropriate support will minimize the damage unmetabolized emotions have on the body.
Therapy. Last but not least, psychotherapy is structured in a way that effectively assists with the processing and metabolism of emotions. This is especially true for particular therapy modalities such as psychoanalysis, internal family systems, compassionate inquiry, and emotionally-focused therapy, among others.
I believe that catharsis can be achieved through Integrative or Holistic approaches to psychiatric care, considering the dynamic interplay between the brain, the body, the lifestyle, and meaning.
Pharmaceutically, we can create the space to explore the audience.
Medically (via exploring the body and system interactions), we can nurture the container within which catharsis occurs.
Psychotherapeutically, we can work on unfolding events on the stage.
Together, we can achieve emotional release and redirect this energy to where it is needed.
