Tony White

Good point Roses about catharsis and epiphany. You state:

“A catharsis is when you realise something you hadn't realised before? Something new has popped into your head - it was probably always there but that particular time, it became an epiphany of sorts?” (end quote)


I would see them as two different but related things Roses.

Catharsis is generally seen as some kind of release often including an emotional release. With such a release people often end up feeling better and being in better psychological shape afterwards. Especially if the 'thing' being held onto has been for some time and has been troubling to the person.



In this way psychotherapy is often seen as cathartic because it involves people talking out and 'feeling' out what ever is inside them at the time. Indeed this is why the catholic confessional is sometimes seen as one of the very first psychotherapies. A place were people could go and unload the troubled thoughts and feelings inside them - thus have a cathartic experience.

Personally I think catharsis is most important therapeutically and at times I see therapists getting lost in their therapy techniques and theories. They start spending too much time and effort in getting clients to do and say things that their theories require them to do. Thus they forget about the basics like cathartic release.



Of course there can be a down side to catharsis. People can go on catharting (try and say that word when you have had a few beers!) for ever. For instance a woman can come to counselling and complain about her husband and express feelings like sadness and anger about him doing or not doing what she wants. Thus she can use the counselling to have cathartic release about her marital woes.

However this can go on for ever. After the release she can feel better, go home and return the next week with the same woes and then do the same and get the same release. The problem is she never does anything about her marital situation and in this way the counselling then becomes part of the problem. It can provide her with just enough release so she can tolerate her dismal marriage instead of finally getting totally fed up with it and actually doing something about it. The catharsis becomes part of the problem.

There would be debate on this point however. Some therapists would confront her about just expressing feelings about her lay about husband and not actually taking any action. Other therapists would not see anything wrong with it and say things like, “She just needs more time and she will do something when she feels ready and able”.


Tree hugger catharsis




The other potential problem with catharsis is that it is meant to be a means to an end but it can become an end in itself. Cathartic release is stimulating and can be quite pleasurable for some in that way. So some can simply seek opportunities for catharsis because they like how it feels. It has no psychotherapeutic use in this sense.

If someone is going to psychotherapy and doing catharsis that has no psychotherapeutic use then there seems to be something wrong with that. As a therapist I would need to bring such a situation to the surface in a therapy session. However there is nothing intrinsically wrong with having catharsis for catharsis’s sake. People do that all the time by going sky diving, watching sad movies, going to the football so you can shout abuse at the umpires, indeed having sex for non-procreative reasons and so on.



Epiphany
In therapy one sometimes hears people talk about having an “Ah ha!” experience. This is what I would see as epiphany like. The client has a sort of revelation as a consequence of talking with the therapist. The revelation is most often something about them self that they were not aware of. So one could say that all of a sudden the client’s unconscious becomes conscious and there is that sensation of revelation, Ah ha or an epiphany.

This is where the idea of extractive identification plays a role and where the therapist literally steals from the client. A client may report that her husband is always angry but in fact what is happening is he is not angry instead she is projecting her anger on to him. She is unaware than she is doing this and thus the problem persists.


Humans are very good at lying to themselves and not seeing what they are really doing.




If the therapist should suddenly report this to her, that she is projecting her anger, then her unconscious all of a sudden become conscious. But the therapist has stolen the ah ha experience from her by giving her that information. He has stolen the possibility of her having an epiphany about her unconscious projection, at least to some degree. This is extractive identification.

If she should suddenly become aware of her unconscious projections by her self then her experience or self revelation will be much stronger and thus will tend to have more of a psychological impact on her. It’s like the client is half way through reading the latest Harry Potter novel and all of a sudden the therapist comes along and tells her the ending. The experience is ruined to some degree.

So that is why it is sometimes (often) wise for the therapist to shut up and let the client struggle around and come to their own realisations about their unconscious even if it is standing out like the proverbials for the therapist looking on.

So that is how I see catharsis and an epiphany being different. However often an epiphany can lead onto some kind of cathartic release and indeed a catharsis could lead to an epiphany for that matter. So one could say that they are related in that way.



Right at this time I am working with a man where catharsis is the main mode of treatment. I have seen him 5 times and all he does is talk and talk lots. He is a banker and arrives always on time in an immaculately tailored suit with gold pens in the top pocket, business tie and perfectly shined black shoes. The whole deal of the upper end business world.

He just talks. I intervene occasionally but not all that often. For the past 30 years he has never had an opportunity to speak about himself in this way. So now he can and he is not missing the opportunity. At last he can talk about himself and what he thinks and feels and about his life as a child and teenager and so forth.

I could be doing all sorts of fancy therapy but I don’t and he simply gets cathartic release. If he continues to see me then I will intervene more but for the time being he states that he is getting what he wants and is keen to continue.

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