ABSTRACT
The medical purgation model of catharsis works like a homeopathic treatment, for the spectator's tendency to experience emotional excess is first excited by the music, and then restored as the release or purgation of the excess emotions helps the soul settle down. The emotional clarification view of catharsis has been enormously influential, and some might say that it is currently the dominant approach to the topic. However, Jonathan Lear, G. R. F. Ferrari, and Pierre Destree have independently posed strong challenges that people should consider. On Ferrrari's view pity and fear are the focus of Aristotle's analysis in the Poetics because they are the emotions that are engaged by tragic suspense. This goes along with what calling the 'suspense/detective novel' approach to catharsis. Catharsis, nevertheless, has a therapeutic aspect, something that is available to all spectators, because it can lighten the burden of the painfulness of their experience of pity and fear, providing a pleasurable relief.
