From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcatharsisca‧thar‧sis /kəˈθɑːsɪs $ -ɑːr-/ noun [uncountable] formalMP the act or process of removing strong or violent emotions by expressing them through writing, talking, acting etc Music is a means of catharsis for me.
Examples from the Corpus
catharsis• The same note of emotional catharsis was sounded by the Romantic poets in general, after the desiccation of late neoclassicism.• Provide for catharsis - release of interdepartmental or interpersonal conflicts of long standing.• Barney was an advanced thinker, a believer in catharsis.• The sociologist Scheff is probably the social scientist who has attempted the most thoroughgoing analysis of catharsis in social life.• This revolt is a kind of catharsis.• Music is a means of catharsis for them and they say they like to do things in extreme.• What we witness is not an aesthetic spectacle bringing with it the catharsis which the ritual of the theater can produce.• This is the Neds venting their frustrations but finding order through catharsis - a chaotic way of feeling better.Origin catharsis (1800-1900) Modern Latin Greek, from kathairein “to make clean or pure”, from katharos “pure” 