The Catharsis Code
The Secret Power of Influence
The audience doesn't just listen to this talk. They experience it.
There are already plenty of models for how a story is built. The Catharsis Code™ teaches you how to create an experience that makes people want to act.
The keynote opens with an experience that is left unexplained. From there, the audience embarks on a journey from Aristotle to Hollywood, into the human mind and towards the discovery of the true power of influence. Along the way, the pieces begin to fall into place. In the end, the audience realises that they are themselves part of the answer.
Where does impact come from?
- The first stories — why humans have always told them.
- Aristotle — a riddle about the power of stories, more than 2,000 years old.
- Hollywood — how the secret power of storytelling explains its multibillion-dollar success.
- The human mind — what a story builds in us.
When is understanding not enough?
- Strategy — The strategy is understood and agreed, but people do not commit to carrying it out.
- Sales — The customer understands the sales arguments and may even agree, but no decision is made.
- Funding — The numbers, the product and the market all make sense, but the investor doesn't yet see why this company's story deserves to continue — or what role they could play in it.
- Communications — The message reaches people, but does not change how they think or act.
- Change — People have been told what the change requires and why, but understanding does not yet create the will to get on board.
People understand. But nothing happens.
The catharsis of influence
According to Aristotle, the purpose of a story is to create a particular experience in the audience. He identified catharsis as a central concept of this experience, but its meaning remained a mystery. For more than 2,000 years, scholars have sought to understand what he really meant.
The Catharsis Code™ offers a new solution to this ancient mystery — and brings the power of catharsis into the world of modern influence.
The catharsis of influence is an experience in which emotion, moral meaning and intellectual insight come together — and can transform understanding into a desire to act.
What does the audience take away?
A claim asks the audience to believe. An experience allows them to discover the meaning for themselves.
The listener leaves with a new model of influence: the focus is not only on how a message is built, but on what you want your audience to experience, realise and ultimately do.
At the end of the keynote, The Catharsis Code™ is distilled into four practical questions that let you apply the idea to your own communication straight away.
Where does this come from?
Behind this keynote is a journey of research that began in the 1990s — into the impact of stories and the experience of the audience.
- Aristotle's Proper Pleasure in TV Series — PILOTS Workshop, Sitges. A lecture for European screenwriters. Other speakers on the same programme included Christopher Vogler, known as the story consultant on The Lion King, Hollywood screenwriting consultant Michael Hauge, and John Wells, producer of ER and The West Wing.
- Aristotle's Poetics, Story Design, and Audience Appeal: A Story Strength Theory — Doctoral dissertation, University of Tampere. Opponent: Professor Tom Schatz, University of Texas at Austin.
- Aristotle in Hollywood – The Anatomy of Successful Storytelling — Berlin Scriptforum, Berlin. A lecture presenting the book at an international professional forum for screenwriting and story development. The book has been used as course material at several European universities.
- Story Power — MediaXchange Workshop, Oslo. A lecture for Nordic television drama producers.
- Dramaturgy in entertainment programming — A two-day lecture seminar, the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle).
The keynote at your event
- Length
- The Catharsis Code™ is a 45-minute keynote.
- Languages
- In English or Finnish
- Your event
- Tell me in advance who will be in the audience, what the event aims to achieve and what else is on the day's programme. This allows me to adapt the emphasis of the keynote to your audience and occasion.
When understanding is not enough.
A new way of thinking about what influence is.
Tell me about your event, and let's see whether The Catharsis Code™ is the right fit.
Get in touchThe Catharsis Code™