Christopher Vogler The Writers Journey
earlier book that he would eventually get around to defining catharsis.
Whatever it meant to Aristotle, the word has come to mean something to us:
a sudden release of emotions that can be brought about by good entertainment, great
art, or probing for psychological insight. Its roots are deep in our spirits and in the
history of our species. If we look back a little into the origins of drama, we might
find that catharsis has always been a desired effect and in fact is the mainspring of
the dramatic experience.
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T H E W R I T E R ' S JOURNEY ~ T H I R D EDITION
Christopher Vogler
To find the origins of drama, narrative, art, religion, and philosophy we have
to cast our minds back to the time when human beings were in their earliest stages
of development. T h r o u g h a few miracles of preservation, we have windows into the