Operating from the same impulse, "Spider-Man" takes the sense of powerlessness in its audience and displaces it onto the screen, providing catharsis.

It may even be that the Winter Games provide catharsis for the awful events of Sept. 11, when nihilist thugs came crashing into America.

The series may serve as a launching pad for new productions, but it also provides creative catharsis for the writers.

Sports have provided catharsis for New York, culminating in last weekend's dazzling double-header: the marathon and the World Series.

Some modern societies use tales of revenge to provide catharsis, or to condition their members against acting out of desire for retribution.

But to see them in print provides catharsis for people who have suffered the injustice of seeing injustice not owned up to.

Also uncharacteristically, "Dante Sonata," which provided catharsis for its wartime London audiences, caused a huge sensation at its premiere.

This is public theater at its best, providing both diversion (from Iraq, the S.& L. mess, homelessness) and catharsis.

It is a mystical work that provides genuine catharsis.

Scheff suggests that ritual provides catharsis, emotional purging, through distancing.