For me, it’s been a way of finally finding “Purpose” in life! It’s a methodology which can be used by people feeling that they have no purpose, feel suicidal, have addictions and struggling to break free, or just simply, looking for a new direction. I don’t even think that the word “Catharsism” really exists, but it kinda says what I’m thinking, and aiming towards.
Ca-thar-sis [ kuh - thahr - sis ]
1. The purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.
2. Psychiatry. Psychotherapy that encourages or permits the discharge of pent-up, or socially unacceptable affects.
3. Origin: 1803, from Latinized form of Gk. katharsis "purging, cleansing," from kathairein "to purify, purge," from katharos "pure, clear of dirt, clean, spotless, open, free, clear of shame or guilt, purified,"
4. A release of emotional tension, as after an overwhelming experience, that restores or refreshes the spirit. 1, 2, Sourced from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/catharsis © 2012. 3, Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2012 Douglas Harper 4, American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc.
YOU DON’T NEED TO BE AN ACADEMIC: I’m not an academic and left school with only a few exam pass grades in religious education and metalwork, and there isn't much you can do with that unless you want a career making metal crucifixes. So all that I do is pretty much self-taught. all that I do is pretty well self-taught. But over the years of “Admission” have found things that work for me, and offer a reason to get up each day and do something more fulfilling. In this case, it’s through music and words, as I strike out to put down from mind things that have caused inner conflict or total despair which need to find a home by “Purging”. I’ve also had to acknowledge that everything that has happened to me has also, almost perversely, made me who I am, a person to finally be “Proud” of! And it doesn’t hurt to be able to say that after years of self-loathing, swimming against the tide, and constantly being reminded of one’s “Difference”.
QUOTE: “It’s an odd almost perverse thing to say maybe, but a few years ago I realised that if I’m so “Proud” of the person I’ve now become, then surely, I must also give “Thanks” for all that has gone before!”
That includes those racist attacks, abusive parents, violence, child abuse, drug addiction, my own failings, and generally being unfairly treated in life even into my sixties, where even in my daily life I have to listen to somebody still referring to those of colour as “niggers”, even though I respectfully ask that they don’t! It doesn’t mean I encourage it or like it, I don’t, but by accepting that pain and redirecting it, in one full sweep, I’ve almost erased just about every bit of cruelty or injustice inflicted, whilst firing it back from whence it came without apportioning blame just by responding differently! This has allowed me to be able to focus more positively on the person who now stands behind the name, but without the damaging stuff from the past seeping through to spoil the day, like those typical responses of out-of-control anger or violent riposte. So how liberating aye…
If you’ve listened to any of my music you can hear that my songs are in some way autobiographical, and that’s been the “Release”! Of course if one felt so inclined they could also paint it out of mind, write a novel, or write their own autobiography or script to get this stuff out creatively. The choice is yours, and with the internet these days I don’t think there can be many excuses for not achieving something you’ve always wanted or would like to do, with so many tutorials freely available.
BUT FIRST COMES THE ADMISSION: And this is an important one I think, in that you have to be totally “Honest” with yourself and any failings, and from that point on we can start to build from within, not by leaning on others who may have their own issues or shortcomings, and sometimes even false praise, which in the way of “Compliments” surely only leaves us a slave unto them…
QUOTE: Time To Take Responsibility For Your Actions
“Listen, after so many years of keep telling yourself these things and with nothing ever seeming to change, Who’s Responsible? You can blame anybody and Everybody for your appalling behaviour or shortcomings, but one thing I now know for Sure, is that it will Never cure them!”
Some of my offerings here may seem a little “Heavy” in tone, but so is the nature of self-harm, suicidal tendency, racism, abuse or depression, and of course it’s also the road I’ve had to travel to get here which for now is a happier place, so maybe it’s just part of the medicine towards the cure!
(click on the image below to audition the songs)
Dépression Circumstanciale
QUOTE: “Oh yes, Depression! I know it well… It’s a place of Total Despair, and not somewhere you can or Should take anybody else! It’s a dark, desolate, and emotionally crippling place, known only to You and possibly the eunuchs of the Kasbah, and feels at the time totally inescapable! Almost without warning, it can insidiously creep up and just sweeps over you and still feel as dark and disarming as at any time before. But I’m now more knowledgeable in how to negotiate a way through it all, but better still, to see the warning signs and take evasive action before it strikes, whilst at the same time, eternally Thankful for the Enrichment it brings to my Soul…”
CLOSURE?: That word “Closure” I think along with “Sorry”, has to be one of the most overused and misused words in dialogue. Ask the victims of rape or murder if they can ever shut the experience out or have things return to “Normal” as implied by it, even after the perpetrator’s been to court. I doubt they can, but we could maybe try to “Rewire” our way of thinking to keep any internal pain out of harm’s way! I tend to prefer the word “Acceptance” now, which I think is a kind of “Forgiveness” by proxy, which can help to make it through if we can’t seem to be able to let go.
