"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Tuesday, 2 June 2009

Catharsis

 
Catharsis (in psychoanalytical terms) means the purging of emotional tensions; the release felt after an overwhelming vicarious experience, resulting in the purging or purification of the emotions.. In medicine it has the older and more 'bodily function' meaning of purging the body by the use of a cathartic to stimulate evacuation of the bowels.

My main reason for including the word on this blog is because I can never remember how to spell it. I put catarthis into Google and it asked me 'Do you mean catharthis'. I thought, 'Oh, so that's how it's spelled' and clicked 'Yes'. Google giggled and said 'Sorry cannot find anything on catharthis'. Don't you just hate it when computers laugh at you?
 

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