been asked to do this many times. I always refused. for thats what I call textbook shrinky garbage. Every therapist psychiatrist and psychologist has been taught during college psych 101for years well before 1983 when I first entered therapy and was asked to do that. And everyone that I know that has been in therapy has been asked to do this to express anger of any kind over any situation. It could be a childhood problem or the fight a person had the night before with their husband. my present therapist and I were talking about something but I don't remember what it was just that her sentence started with "have you ever.." and I finished with laughing and telling her dont go there cause I won't do it, the shrink world really needs to find another expression tool instead of the uniform here hit the chair with a bat, or put the person here in this chair routines. For me there would be me there would be no benefit of doing that activity except humiliating myself with the idea of what I would look like standing there yelling at a chair. For me I have other ways of expressing myself - poetry, wring, drawing, singing along with music, throwing a ball in a basket., squishing and shaping clay and playdough, painting, biking, talking into a tape recorder, going into prisons and telling/yelling at those convicted rapists just what they are doing to those they hurt. and so on. I figure if Im going to yell at someone its going to be worth it by yelling at the real person showing them that I am not afraid of them anymore and never will be.

Some people that I know that have done this say it worked for them, others say they got nothing out of it other than pleasing their therapist by doing it.