Catharsis vs. Cathartic — What's the Difference?

Catharsis (from Greek κάθαρσις, katharsis, meaning "purification" or "cleansing" or "clarification") is the purification and purgation of emotions—particularly pity and fear—through art or any extreme change in emotion that results in renewal and restoration. It is a metaphor originally used by Aristotle in the Poetics, comparing the effects of tragedy on the mind of a spectator to the effect of catharsis on the body.

In medicine, a cathartic is a substance that accelerates defecation. This is similar to a laxative, which is a substance that eases defecation, usually by softening feces.

(Medicine) Purgation, especially for the digestive system.

Inducing catharsis; purgative.

A purifying or figurative cleansing of the emotions, especially pity and fear, described by Aristotle as an effect of tragic drama on its audience.

An agent for purging the bowels, especially a laxative.

A release of emotional tension, as after an overwhelming experience, that restores or refreshes the spirit.

Purgative; inducing mental or physical catharsis.

A technique used to relieve tension and anxiety by bringing repressed feelings and fears to consciousness.

That which releases emotional tension, especially after an overwhelming experience.

The therapeutic result of this process; abreaction.

(medicine) A laxative.

(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).

Cleansing the bowels; promoting evacuations by stool; purgative.

Any release of emotional tension to the same effect, more widely.

Of or pertaining to the purgative principle of senna, as cathartic acid.

A purification or cleansing, especially emotional.

A medicine that promotes alvine discharges; a purge; a purgative of moderate activity.

(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).

A purging medicine; stimulates evacuation of the bowels

(medicine) Purging of the digestive system.

Emotionally purging

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

Emotionally purging (of e.g. art)

The process of relieving an abnormal excitement by reëstablishing 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).

Strongly laxative

(psychoanalysis) purging of emotional tensions

Purging the body by the use of a cathartic to stimulate evacuation of the bowels