Catharsis Reconsidered

Abstract

Mainstream psychiatry and psychotherapy have held for many years that cathartic psychotherapies involving powerful emotional expression have limited value. The conventional wisdom is that they are either dangerous, or ineffective, or that their effectiveness is short-lived. This paper reviews the origins of this conventional wisdom and makes two findings. Firstly, that there is remarkably little serious research into cathartic psychotherapies, but what there is tends to support catharsis. Secondly, that the periods in the last 200 years when cathartic methods have fallen into disrepute have often coincided with threatened or actual scandals involving prominent practitioners of cathartic psychotherapy. Four models of catharsis are described; the “Hydraulic”, the “Pavlovian”, the “Cathexis”, and the “Holographic”. The discussion suggests situations in which catharsis would be likely to prove useful, and indicates potential risks.