Do You Know What It Is And How It Helps Emotional Catharsis?
Maybe at some point you started crying because emotions took over and you couldn’t help it, and not only that, you couldn’t stop your tears. It may also be that irritation or anger has driven you into an intense emotional outburst that has gone beyond your control. These experiences are part of the phenomenon known as emotional catharsis.
Emotional catharsis is a process in which our emotions are shown in the purest form, and that is why it is usually part of situations where discomfort is very intense. Precisely because it is an intense expression of emotion, for many people it is often disturbing and they may even come to think that catharsis is dangerous.
Despite being quite scandalous, an emotional catharsis process is never dangerous, but fulfills a liberating function. It helps us to know and express what we feel, taking us beyond the intellectualization of adverse situations we are living. That is, we let go of repression, and actually began to express all the emotional flood that we had inside.
Emotional catharsis in the therapeutic process
One of the main concerns we tend to have when we first turn to psychological therapy is that emotional catharsis overtakes us and we cannot make logical sense of our own speech. But, in most cases, what is sought in a therapeutic process is the recognition and validation of emotions, in order to identify the experiences that cause us discomfort.
In fact, catharsis was a process sought and used by Sigmund Freud at the beginning of psychoanalysis. In his case, as hysteria was a disease of traumatic origin, Freud used hypnosis to achieve an emotional “cleansing” or catharsis that released the trauma, facilitating the expression of the repressed emotions and experiences that caused the symptoms.
But it is not only within psychoanalysis that catharsis becomes an important therapeutic element. In the Psychodrama of authors such as Moreno, catharsis is the goal of group therapy. In this case, what is wanted is the elaboration of the conflict that led us to therapy.
Emotional expression is an essential part of being
Every emotional expression, even if it manifests itself abruptly as can happen with catharsis, needs to be acknowledged and never censored. Consider that emotions are a part of us, an extra part that gives us the essence that makes us who we are.
Furthermore, emotional experiences help us to relate to the world, they are an extra part of the experience we have with our own surroundings and with others. They are a fundamental part of being able to process everything from the most painful or distressing experiences to the most joyful ones we can imagine.
In fact, emotional catharsis arises when we show ourselves strong for too long and then break down. That’s why it becomes a necessary and uncontrollable process, a process that shows us the reality, that teaches us that we are fragile and that sometimes we need to break down in tears to rebuild the experience in the form of new learning.
References:
Freixas, G. and Miró. MT (1993): Approaches to psychotherapy. Barcelona: Paidós.
Martorell, JL (2014): Psychotherapies. Escuelas and basic concepts. 2nd Ed. Madrid: Pyramid.
