Straton D
Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 1990 Dec;24(4):543-51. doi: 10.3109/00048679009062911.
Mainstream psychiatry and psychotherapy have held for many years that cathartic psychotherapies involving powerful emotional expression have limited value. The conventional wisdom is that they are either dangerous, or ineffective, or that their effectiveness is short-lived. This paper reviews the origins of this conventional wisdom and makes two findings. Firstly, that there is remarkably little serious research into cathartic psychotherapies, but what there is tends to support catharsis. Secondly, that the periods in the last 200 years when cathartic methods have fallen into disrepute have often coincided with threatened or actual scandals involving prominent practitioners of cathartic psychotherapy. Four models of catharsis are described; the "Hydraulic", the "Pavlovian", the "Cathexis", and the "Holographic". The discussion suggests situations in which catharsis would be likely to prove useful, and indicates potential risks.
多年来，主流精神病学和心理治疗一直认为，涉及强烈情感表达的宣泄式心理治疗价值有限。传统观点认为，它们要么危险，要么无效，要么其效果只是短暂的。本文回顾了这一传统观点的起源，并得出两项发现。其一，对宣泄式心理治疗的严肃研究非常少，但已有的研究往往支持宣泄疗法。其二，在过去200年里，宣泄式方法声名狼藉的时期，常常恰逢涉及宣泄式心理治疗著名从业者的潜在或实际丑闻。文中描述了四种宣泄模式：“液压式”、“巴甫洛夫式”、“精神贯注式”和“全息式”。讨论提出了宣泄疗法可能证明有用的情况，并指出了潜在风险。
