The Angry Itch

Anger can be considered one of the most toxic emotions a person can experience.  It can also be one of the most motivating.  In order to understand how to best manage anger for one’s own life, it helps to understand anger from several different angles. Michael Potegal and Raymond W. Novaco wrote an essay called A Brief History of Anger.  Some of their key points around anger involved insanity, sin, and manhood.   All of these reasons for anger still exist to some extent in the ways we live even now. When we say someone is ‘mad with rage’ we know that they are capable of losing control to the point of becoming unpredictable.  It is almost as if they have lost their ability to think about the long-term consequences outside the realm of immediate gratification and impulsive behavior.  Examples of such behavior in popular culture today include: Many characters from Roald Dahl’s books. (Think Matilda’s parents or Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) Perry Wright, from Big Little Lies.  Even our president shows signs of impulsive rage.   In addition to insanity, masculinity still plays a large part in anger.  In some areas of the world (the United States in particular) it is widely acknowledged that anger is one of the only socially acceptable emotions for men to express.  When love is deeply expressed through loyalty in the enormously popular mafia movies, it is usually done so with an undercurrent of violence.  Many women feel that it is not a coincidence ...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Anger Habits Happiness Relationships Self-Help anxiety Emotion Regulation Frustration Mood Swings Rage Temper Temperament Source Type: blogs