Catharsis comes from the Greek word kathoros, which means 'cleansing, to purify or to make clean.
According to psychotherapist, this term refers to an emotional release that is experienced after expressing one's emotions about an event.
The term is also used in literature, and it carries quite a similar meaning.
In literature, catharsis means the purging of feelings of pity and fear that occur in the audience of tragic drama.
According to Aristotle, audience has a sense of relief by expressing some of their emotions while watching drama.
Some people, including me myself, do experience catharsis when watching films.
For instance, in the film "Papadom" directed by Afdlin Shauki, some of my friends cried while watching the film as the characters remind them of the relationship between them and their fathers.
This is considered as catharsis because my friends are able to understand the characters and relate them with their own situation in real life.
In reality, some people might look upon men's tears as being unmanly, but when it comes to catharsis moment, men's tears are acceptable.
Catharsis through films or dramas enable people to express and release their painful emotion and clear their mind off terrible past experience.
Thus, any sort of feeling expressed by the audience, whether they laugh or cry, is acceptable and is considered as a good way of healing and reducing their emotional pain.
However, Plato suggested extreme emotional experience might prompt extreme emotional living (behaving unethically and irrationally). He believed that literary works (drama and poetry) could produce negative effects on the readers or viewers, thus will provoke them to act more extremely.
This ancient debate is still being fought in modern society nowadays.
Updated August 18, 2009
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-catharsis.htmUseful reference :-
Diyani,R. (2000). Literature : Reading Fiction, Poetry and Drama (Compact Edition). McGraw Hill : Singapore
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