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Catharsis is from the Ancient Greek word κάθαρσις, katharsis, meaning “purification” or “cleansing”. In English it can refer to a number of different excreting acts.

It is most commonly used today to refer to the purification and purgation of thoughts and emotions, and to a resulting emotional state that results in renewal and restoration.

In dramaturgy, the term usually refers to arousing negative emotion in an audience, which then expels it, making them feel happier.In psychology, the term is associated with Freudian psychoanalysis where it specifically relates to the expression of buried trauma (the cause of a neurosis), bringing it into consciousness and releasing it, increasing happiness.

In Greek the term originally had a physical meaning only. This began with its use to describe purification practices. The first recorded use of the term being used in the mental sense was by Aristotle in the Politics and Poetics, comparing the effects of tragedy on the mind of a spectator to the effect of catharsis on the body.

Tragedy’s Definition By Aristotle:

Tragedy is, then, an enactment of a deed that is important and complete, and of [a certain] magnitude, by means of language enriched [with ornaments], each used separately in the different parts [of the play]: it is enacted, not [merely] recited, and through pity and fear it effects relief (catharsis) to such [and similar] emotions.

— Poetics, VI 1449b 2–3[20]

Ορσιμός της Τραγωδίας κατά τον Αριστοτέλη ( Ποιητική του (1448b-24 κ.ε):

Ἔστιν οὖν τραγῳδία μίμησις πράξεως σπουδαίας καὶ τελείας, μέγεθος ἐχούσης, ἡδυσμένῳ λόγῳ, χωρὶς ἑκάστῳ τῶν εἰδῶν ἐν τοῖς μορίοις, δρώντων καὶ οὐ δι’ ἀπαγγελίας, δι’ ἐλέου καὶ φόβου περαίνουσα τὴν τῶν τοιούτων παθημάτων κάθαρσιν.