What You Can Change _. And What You Can't - Martin E. Seligman [168]
14. J. L. Austin, “A Plea for Excuses,” in Philosophical Papers (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961), 123–52.
15. The research literature on the effectiveness of catharsis (also called abreaction) is very thin. For the most complete recent review, see I. Marks, “Emotional Arousal as Therapy: Activation vs. Dissociation,” European Psychiatry 6 (1991): 161–70.
On the negative side, see, for example, M. Stern, E. Plionis, and L. Kaslow, “Group Process Expectations and Outcome with Post-Myocardial Infarction Patients,” General Hospital Psychiatry 6 (1984): 101–8; M. Lieberman, I. Yalom, and M. Miles, Encounter Groups: First Facts (New York: Basic Books, 1973); A Bohart, “Toward a Cognitive Theory of Catharsis,” Psychotherapy—Theory, Research, and Practice 17 (1980): 192–201; R. Baron, “Countering the Effects of Destructive Criticism: The Relative Efficacy of Four Interventions,” Journal of Applied Psychology 75 (1990): 235–45; and R. Edelmann and S. Hardwick, “Test Anxiety: Past Performance and Coping Strategies,” Personality and Individual Differences 7 (1986): 255–57.
On the positive side, see M. Nichols, “Outcome of Brief Cathartic Psychotherapy,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 42 (1974): 403–10; and H. Bierenbaum, A. Schwartz, and M. Nichols, “Effects of Varying Session Length and Frequency in Brief Emotive Psychotherapy,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 44 (1976): 790–98.
In general, when it comes to how much patients like it, catharsis is rated highly. When it comes to measures of how well they do, catharsis fares badly.
There is something to be said for disclosure of traumatic events, as opposed to catharsis per se. Evidence is mounting that not keeping trauma secret helps physical health. See, for example, J. Pennebaker, J. Kielcolt-Glaser, and J. Glaser, “Disclosure of Traumas and Immune Function: Health Implications for Psychotherapy,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 56 (1988): 239–45; and M. Greenberg and A. Stone, “Emotional Disclosure About Traumas and Its Relation to Health: Effects of Previous Disclosure and Trauma Severity,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 63 (1992): 75–84. But disclosure to others does not equal catharsis, which is disclosure to the self.
There may indeed be something to catharsis, but after 100 years its effects remain undocumented and underresearched, and its adherents seem to have largely given it up. So I am not prepared to condemn it outright as a method, just to caution the reader. I do find it scary to see such an unfounded method recurrently creep into such “pop” therapies for seriously troubled people as the encounter groups of the 1960s and 1970s, and the recovery groups of the 1990s.
16. I tried in vain to find any follow-up data at all from the recovery movement. John Bradshaw’s office didn’t have any (25 June 1992) and referred me to Mary Bell at the Center for Recovering Families in Houston. They were hoping to start such a study.
17. Two excellent critiques of the recovery movement: W. Kaminer, I’m Dysfunctional, You’re Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1992); and D. Rieff, “Victims, All? Recovery, Co-dependency, and the Art of Blaming Somebody Else,” Harper’s, October 1991. See also J. Leo, “The It’s-Not-My-Fault Syndrome,” U.S. News & World Report, 18 June 1991.
18. These remarks about