The Therapeutic Value of Violent Movies

Though talking about real, rather than imaginary violence, Frantz Fanon noted that violence "''is a cleansing force. It frees the native from his inferiority complex and from his despair and inaction; it makes him fearless and restores his self-respect.'' Me, I was just musing about the therapeutic affect of watching "Die Hard" and its ilk. But, at least on the inner playground, it did seem to free my natives from their sense of despair and inaction.

OK, it's a stretch. I admit. Something was doing a kind of violence to my body. And fantasies of violence did seem to appease my need to focus on my own misery. And I'd never before heard of anyone even suggesting that these kinds of entertainments had any positive affect on anything. They didn't make me laugh. They were not what funny fun. But fun, nevertheless. And apparently the only kind of fun that was blatant enough to keep Silly and Serious both engaged. And I've never heard of anyone talk about this before. And, frankly, I'm as surprised to find myself talking about it as you should be. We're not talking Norman Cousins here. We're not talking even about the therapeutic value of laughter. But of socially unreedemable, box-office-boffo vio- (can you believe it) -lence?