system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What is the current scientific consensus regarding the effectiveness of catharsis and venting in the release of emotions?
gpt
There are multiple ways to perform catharsis.  One is through sharing your emotions with others (i.e., "venting").  Bernard Rime does a bunch of work on this.  Rime (2007) has suggested that the social sharing of emotions doesn't lead to emotional recovery. Why? Because when you share your emotions, you're also reactivating the memory of what caused your emotion in the first place.  This memory then reactivates your emotion.  So if you're sharing a positive emotion, you'll feel more positive.  But if you're sharing a negative emotion, you'll feel more negative. 

Despite, the commonly held belief that the social sharing of emotions is relieving, Rime has consistently found that emotional recovery is not achieved when doing so. 

So why do people share their emotions? It turns out that the benefits of sharing one's emotions aren't derived from the act of venting itself but rather from the person with whom those feelings are shared.  So if you tell your friend how angry you are, then she'll likely help you try to reappraise the situation or distract you from it (etc.). Your friend is helping you to regulate/modify your emotions (for a more accurate/comprehensive account of interpersonal emotion regulation, see Zaki & Williams, 2013).

There's also catharsis through expressive writing.  A recent study (Sbarra et al., 2013) suggests this can impede emotional recovery post marital separation.