catharsis

catharsis
Literally ‘cleansing’ or ‘purging’, psychodynamically the term refers to a release of emotions that reduces underlying tensions and anxieties. Sigmund Freud initially suggested that catharsis could be accomplished through the simple re-enactment of the distressing early experiences that occasioned subsequent pathology. Later he argued that active processes of repression inhibited cathartic re-enactments. See also psychoanalysis.