Lustration

[Slava]

A word that is getting some play in the news these days, so perhaps a review of whence it came and how it differs from catharsis would be interesting?

Slava

[Ferrus]

Cathartic is more closely related to purgative. Lustration, unlike the aforesaid words does not usually appertain to emotional purging but rather to purging in the more Stalinist sense of the word, such as the lustration in the former Yugoslavia of war criminals. Epuration (a word with more currency in French) is similar in this manner.

[gailr]

... Lustration, unlike the aforesaid words does not usually appertain to emotional purging but rather to purging in the more Stalinist sense of the word, such as the lustration in the former Yugoslavia of war criminals. ...

That may depend on what you read and where you live. I think first of less sinister usages for lustration:

lustration [Encyclopaedia Britannica]

lustration [Jewish Encyclopedia.com]

lustration [New Advent]

[Slava]

What I was thinking of here was an explication for the recipients of the general e-mail. While most of the Agorans are probably well aware of the difference, I thought perhaps others might be wondering why the Poles need a lustration rather than a catharsis.

Which leads me to be a bit weird:

After what it thought was the catharsis of breaking with the Soviet Union, the Polish Nation has begun to feel Frustration. The Pole pols and religious leaders felt it was time for a Lustration; a time for Genuflection and seeking of Absolution.

Okay, it's not great, but it is a bunch of -tions.

Slava

[Bailey]

how very illustrative.

mark drawng-pretty-pictures Bailey

[Ferrus]

That may depend on what you read and where you live. I think first of less sinister usages for lustration:

Perhaps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lustration