Destructotherapy

I'm doing a little mall blogging. It's so hot out today that the mall seemed like a good place to hang out and I can use the WiFi from the Apple Store. That place is always a madhouse.

Why didn't I think of this:

It sounds like a good, safe way to take out some aggression — get a bunch of people together to beat the heck out of cars, appliances and other household items.

But is it therapy?

A group of Spaniards say, yes. Their "destruction therapy" sessions have become popular for folks looking to leave their workday inhibitions behind, and the latest event, held Saturday in the northern Spain town of Castejon, marked the first time the aggression session was open to the general public, according to Reuters.

Destruction Therapy, or Destructotherapy, was founded in 2003 by three Spanish entrepreneurs who wanted to offer a way to relieve participants' pent-up rage at office life — in an outdoor, supervised setting — according to a profile in Sterling Magazine.

The "patients" pay for the chance to choose from a variety of tools, which they then use to whack the crap out of objects gathered from junkyards and other sources, according to Sterling Magazine, which reported that the sessions typically last about an hour. About 40 percent of participants are women, the magazine said.

Whether such activities have any long-term therapeutic value is debatable, but participants seem to have fun in the process. A video of one Destruction Therapy session from 2005 shows a clan of destructionists gleefully wielding their sledgehammers against junked cars while a rock band plays on the periphery.

Sounds okay, but I prefer the old "going postal" form of therapy. That can be very satisfying.