gr. κάθαρσις, kathársis: purgação, purificação. De καθαρός, katharós: puro. katharotes = pureza. A katharsis é o método progressivo de desapego dos sentidos para viver segundo o pensamento. [Gobry  ]

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Término del proceso de la purificación.—El término final de todo el proceso ascendente de la Dialéctica, del Arte, del Amor y de la Virtud será llegar a la unión con el Uno, que es el principio de todas las cosas, no sólo por contemplación, sino también por conciencia de la identidad entitativa.

A este fin tiende toda la filosofía de Plotino   y es lo único que le interesa. No concede ninguna importancia al mundo sensible ni a las cosas que a él pertenecen. Todas son puras apariencias, sombras mentirosas que no merecen ocupar la atención del filósofo. Su desdén ante el mundo llega a convertirse en una verdadera actitud acosmista que evoca un poco la de Berkeley  . El mundo no es un camino, sino un estorbo para llegar al estado feliz de contemplación del Uno, y, por lo tanto, hay que suprimir implacablemente todo contacto con él.

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The idea of catharsis, that arousing emotion can lighten it by means at which Aristotle   only hints, constitutes Aristotle’s answer to Plato’s view that poets must be banned from the ideal community, because they arouse undesirable emotions. The passage quoted above from Iamblichus   Myst. 1.11 is the fullest surviving reference to Aristotle’s theory of catharsis since his death six centuries earlier. There are fragmentary references among Epicureans by Philodemus. Among Stoics, Seneca On Anger 2.1-4 may implicitly rule out the theory (so Sorabji  , Emotion and Peace of Mind) by denying that the theatre arouses genuine emotion, but it is less clear if Diogenes of Babylon discussed the theory. The neo-Pythagorean Tablet of Cebes does and so does the Middle Platonist Plutarch  .

Despite Iamblichus’ revival of the theory, Proclus   justifies Plato’s banning of poets from the ideal community, by denying that the theatre could have the cathartic effect Aristotle claims, since it arouses emotions immoderately. [SorabjiPC1:299]

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Simplicius   explains the existence of evils inter alia by saying that people are allowed by God to indulge in pleasures until they reach satiety (koros) and vomit. This is a kind of catharsis which heals them. Here catharsis and aversion therapy, which Iamblichus Myst. 1.11 treated as alternatives, are combined.

Olympiodorus  ’ classification of kinds of catharsis associates the kind which secures relief by indulging a little in the manner of medical practice, not with Aristotle, but with Pythagoras  . Pythagoras’ cathartic use of music had been described by Iamblichus. Aristotle is now associated instead, on the basis of his remarks on anger and pleasure, pity and fear, in Rhetoric 2.3, 1380b2; 2.8, 1386a23, instead of his Poetics, with the Stoics and with a kind of catharsis that brings opposites into confrontation. [SorabjiPC1:300]

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LÉXICO: purificação; purismo; puro; katharsis