Is catharsis a logical drama?

Answer 1

Catharsis is the logical effect of a drama!!

Answer 2

I dont see how acording to these definitions it fits your peramitors

Catharsis

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Catharsis is a medical term derived from modern Latin, and is adopted from the Greek word katharsis which literally translated means a cleansing or purging. It is formed on the Greek word kathairein which is translated to cleanse or purge, and kathairein is formed on katharos, which means pure, or more literally utterly clean, spotless. The origins of katharos are in themselves obscure and uncertain, which is in character with the modern day usage of the word catharsis.

There are three definitions for the word catharsis that are generally accepted, and tend to specifically apply to the three disciplines where the word is most often used. The primary definition is in keeping with the medical context from which the word is derived, and is undoubtedly the most literal. It refers to purgations of the excrements of the body, especially the evacuation of the bowels. In it's first uses, the derivative term cathartic was applied to all medicines that cleansed or purified the body of disease. Later this term was restricted to purgative agents.

The second definition of catharsis means: a purification of the emotions by vicarious experience. This definition is most often used when talking about drama, or the arts, with most authorities agreeing that the term was first introduced and used in this context by Aristotle to define the effects of tragedy on the audience in his work titled The Poetics -- it is interesting to note, however, that M. D. Petrusevski, a Yugoslavian scholar, has argued that Aristotle never used the word catharsis in his definition of tragedy.

"In classical scholarship, the study of what catharsis means is still hotly debated" (Abdulla 2). It is such a complex phenomenon of which there has been no systematic study in modern critism. And while concepts in literary critism (e.i. catharsis, mimesis, and the sublime) are typically unstable, with their meanings changing with each new age, perspective and critic, catharsis is the one that is the most protean, or chameleon-like. This makes the undertaking of trying to describe catharsis in literature and art a monumental task. What we can glean from a brief glance at the history of catharsis in the arts, though, is quite interesting.

If we look to some of the foremost thinkers of the past and their ideas on catharsis, we can see mirrored the concerns of each age or school of thought. As examples, Georg Hegel, a German idealist philosopher, was the first thinker to make catharsis a universal phenomenon through what is commonly referred to as the Hegelian Dialectic. This was Hegel's method of reasoning that begins with a thesis which moves to its opposite, the anti-thesis (by the principle of negativity), and these two opposing forces clash producing a new, higher level called synthesis which shares traits of both original concepts. When catharsis is explained in this manner, it takes on aspects of the function of art that eventually become akin to history, life, and the universe (Abdulla 4).

Another noted German philosopher, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, made a significant contribution to one of the variant meanings of catharsis in his first book titled The Birth Of Tragedy From The Spirit Of Man. In it he introduced his famous distinction between the Apollonian, or rational, element in human nature and the Dionysian, or passionate, element, as exemplified in the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus (Wren). According to Nietzsche, tragedy is the product of a tension between these two energies that co-exist in the human mind; but it is only after the recognition of the Dionysian that the Appollonian can triumph producing a momentary harmony. This gives us a glimpse into Nietzsche's insights, and explains his emphasis on the role of emotions leading to some form of intellectual understanding or meaning after in-depth emotional involvement What some have proposed is that what Nietzsche presented in this first published work was a "pagan mythology for those who could accept neither the traditional values of Christianity nor those of Social Darwinism" (Wren). Regardless of how we view his work, it's ramifications on catharsis are evident.

There were many others who made notable contributions to the differing meanings of catharsis in the arts, such as Ernst Cassirer and Georg Lukacs. It was Sigmund Freud's impact on catharsis, however, that has been the most pervasive and far-reaching. While Freud's ideas have substantial influence on the meaning of catharsis in the arts, he is credited not only with being the creator of psychoanalysis, but also as co-author of the technique of catharsis previously used in psychotheraphy. It was actually Dr. Joseph Breuer who began treatment on a patient known only as Anna O., treating her by her own dictates, using hypnosis and regressing the patient to a period that caused her current hysteria. It was then by relating the painful memories that the patient was able to bring them to consciousness and give them proper expression. Breuer and Freud published these findings which exemplify the third definition of catharsis: the process of relieving an abnormal excitement by re-establishing the association of the emotion with the memory or idea of the event which was the first cause of it, and eliminating it by abreaction, or the acting out of these emotions, thereby giving the patient closure.

Thus we can see that while there are three similar meanings to the word catharsis, each carries with it different colorings unique to its own and within each discipline in which it is used. Therefore to adequetly write the history of catharsis would imply the writing of the history of ideas, a truly monumental task indeed (Abdulla 2). This is particularly more emphasized when we acknowledge that the term is discussed seriously by philosophers, anthropologists, psychoanalysts, psychologists, and aestheticians.



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