
I speak, write, and blogtemplate to you today on a Cultural Dictionary Term (American Heritage);
CATHARSIS : [(kuh-thahr -suhs)] An experience of emotional release and purification, often inspired by or through art. In psychoanalysis, catharsis is the release of tension and anxiety that results from bringing repressed feelings and memories into consciousness.
I have seen and heard stories from friends about actions and tasks that take on catharsis because of the intense emotional attachment to processing through items and materials gained or created in the course of their life. This course of life does not have to be very long, but the emotional attachment is deep, heavy, and various levels of pain.
I am not immune to this experience either, and sharing it is a sort of tension release as well today. Metaphorically or literally, the opening of boxes and making decisions about what to keep, what to give away, and what to simply throw out, has been cathartic and slow lately. I mention this from friend's stories and recent experience.
I would like to offer at this point an opportunity to contemplate your own catharsis points in life, and consider what you learned, what you released, what you felt at the end, where you hope to go or be emotionally after you heal from the experience?
I would be supportive of your stories and your path or testimony on catharsis and additional thoughts you would like to pose or suggest or open for discussion and debate.
I would argue that the more painful catharsis are the ones that bring memories into consciousness by accident or by "trigger" and the sudden throws of emotional repression that unravels before you until you can bear to see straight and reclaim your emotionally stable self.
Interestingly enough the healing process can be equally rewarding either way when catharsis is planned or unplanned as distance and time from the event increase.
If now is the time for cathartic events, please share, if you are beginning a catharsis and need to reach out for support or advice, if you are supporting someone through their own catharsis, if you have contemplative ideas about the positive and/or negative value of catharsis, or if you simply want to open the discussion to see where it goes, please do. I appreciate your comments, your replies, and your suggestions.
May your catharsis be healthy and bring you to a feeling of wholeness.
- The Establishment