Understanding Depression: the Hopelessness And the Helplessness; Understanding Pornography And the Tangled Web It Weaves

Modeled after tabloid news shows, these programs which examine current issues offer a mixture of good information, misinformation, and missing information, with occasional editing lapses that would make a real news editor cringe (some edits may be due to the fact these are secular versions of religious programs). In Understanding Depression, host/producer Barry Pintar interviews professional counselors and a handful of people suffering from depression. We're even privy to actual psychological therapy sessions (a color banner with the words "in session" alerts us to the raw reality we're watching). One woman named Tammy has serious problems resolving childhood conflicts concerning her mother. Though Tammy's story is a sad one, the filmmakers just don't know when to quit, so that over the course of several interviews/sessions clips with Tammy we've heard her use enough psycho-jargon to know that whatever other problems Tammy might have, one of them is that she's a professional patient. In the second part of the video, which reintroduces everyone for those with a very short attention span, Pintar discusses treatment and medication. Suffice it to say that mentioning Prozac, lithium, and counseling doesn't constitute a guide to the variety and uses of anti-depressant medication or treatment. Viewers will get much more out of Taking Control of Depression (reviewed in our April 1993 issue).Understanding Pornography and the Tangled Web it Weaves is less choppy (but more repetitive) than Understanding Depression. Several male interviewees candidly speak about their experiences with pornography, and talk about the negative effects it has had upon their lives. Throughout, the program uses a drug analogy: i.e. pornography is "addicting," people who read or view pornographic materials are "users," soft-core pornographic "use" eventually leads to hard-core pornographic use, etc. And, at the end of the road: sexual violence. Dr. John Court supports this chain, and says that those users who aren't sexual aggressors represent a very small percentage. One of the interviewees, Gene McConnell, was convicted of attempted rape, the result of repeated exposure to pornography. And that's the open and shut case of Understanding Pornography. Hmm... It would require the measured opinion of a professional psychologist to surmise what caused Mr. McConnell to nearly rape a woman. But perhaps Playboy is not the culprit; maybe it has something to do with Mr. McConnell being sexually molested at the ages of 6, 9, and 12 by separate individuals--an extreme case of misfortune that is statistically notable. And Dr. Court is very unconvincing about the nearly one-to-one relationship between pornography and aggression. Even the drug analogy seems quite strained: does a person whose gotten his fill of heterosexual pornography make the jump to hermaphroditic pornography to maintain a diminishing "high"? Doubtful. The problem is that the issue of pornography (which the film never even attempts to define) is much more complex than Understanding Pornography suggests. That pornography can, in fact, ruin lives and disrupt families is undeniable, and the one point that the program makes well. Beyond that, however, it's on very shaky ground. Though much more expensive, Patently Offensive (reviewed in our December 1992 issue) is a more incisive look at pornography.There are two other programs in the series, Understanding the Homeless and Choosing to Change From Homosexuality. Not a necessary purchase. (R. Pitman)