Christian Living

Catharsis

by Terry Barlow
01/07/13
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Saw this line from CSLewis this morning, then will begin 'the great story, that no one on earth has heard, that has no end, in which every chapter is better than the one before." What makes it more wonderful if that's possible is that we are getting early glimpses of that great story already, amen!? Oh, Daniel, something else that goes along with Jung and arriving at wholeness is the idea of catharsis, the idea that complexes(his concept: example would be an inferiority complex)) can be shed like an old skin or shell as they are brought to the surface of consciousness and experienced one last time with an understanding of how they took root in the first place. Like the final experience of it in the uprooting of that complex. Anyway that same Greek root "katharos" is the word used in noun and verb form in john 15 where Jesus talks about how we must be pruned or purged(cleansed or purified) of old fruit so we can make room to bear new and better fruit....so the Father can be glorified. I think of how sometimes in our day films or music can be experienced as a powerful means of catharsis or as in Aristotle's day when he used the same katharsis-like term in connection with Greek tragedy as it was known by him to purge pity or fear. But we know that whatever the means only the Holy Spirit can engineer a true catharsis though works of art and people may help to facilitate it. Well there, I am no expert on this but hopefully this hasn't confused any understanding we already have. At least part of what I meant with Dostoyovsky's quote that psychology can be" a double-edged sword" is that at least we know that if God takes us apart in some kind of inward surgery He can put us back together again more whole than before, whereas if humans are attempting the surgery we don't rest in that same assurance. Enough, enough, before it "dies the death of a thousand qualifications!"