ABSTRACT
Antigone is a tragedy, and tragedy is in the forefront of our experiences as analysts, something that is confirmed by the references Freud found in Oedipus Rex as well as in other tragedies. In an even more fundamental way than through the connection to the Oedipus complex, tragedy is at the root of our experience, as the key word 'catharsis' implies. Catharsis has to do with the calming effect associated with a certain kind of music, from which Aristotle doesn't expect a given ethical effect, but one that is related to excitement. The medical notion of Aristotelian catharsis is, in effect, more or less current in a sphere that goes far beyond the realm of our colleagues, the writers, critics, and literary theoreticians. If the Aristotelian formulation appears at first sight to be so closed, it is due to the loss of a part of Aristotle's work as well as to a certain conditioning within the very possibilities of thought.
