The Concept of Anger: Psychodynamics and Management

Abstract

All of us get angry—although some people might not believe this. Anger is an emotion that can occur when there is a threat to our self-esteem, our bodies, our properties, our ways of seeing the world or our desires. People differ in what makes them angry. Some people will perceive an event as threatening, while others see no threat in the same event. Our responses to anger differ greatly. Some people are able to use angry feelings as a way of solving problems rationally and effectively. Others turn their anger inward and engage in self-destructive behaviour. Other people strike out when they feel angry. And some refuse to acknowledge their anger—or they confuse it with other emotions such as vulnerability or fear.³

How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.

So you mustn’t be frightened… if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than you have ever seen; if an anxiety, like light and cloud-shadows moves over your hands and over everything you do. You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hands and will not let you fall. Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any misery, any depression, since after all you don’t know what work these conditions are doing inside you?¹

Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness… We all have reservoirs of life to draw upon, of which we do not dream.²