Tragic Katharsis and Reparation: A Perspective on Aristotle's Poetics

What Aristotle meant by katharsis has tantalised philosophers, psychologists, and literary critics alike for centuries - from metaphors of purgation, purification and ritual cleansing, to claims that katharsis is not an experience of the audience but a property of the play(1), a release of feeling, or a kind of pleasure (2). Some authors, such as Daniels and Scully(3), even deny that katharsis is essentially ail aspect of the emotional experiences of ail audience. This paper will provide an attempt at gaining insight into the "singular phenomenon",(4) of tragic katharsis via the tells of the psychoanalyst Hanna Segal. My paper will begin by looking at some of the arguments I find most persuasive regarding the nature of katharsis; I shall then turn my attention to Segal's discussion of tragedy. The final part of the paper will attempt to show how Segal's discussion can shed light on the analysis of tragedy that Aristotle provides in his Poetics.