There’s a lot of talk about anger and rage in the media these days. According to many, we live in an “outrage culture” and male anger is the cause of much domestic assault and gun violence. We’re also often reminded that social media has destroyed civility and turned us all into narrow-minded, passive-aggressive--and sometimes just plain aggressive— bullies.
What if we told you that one of the biggest problems with our society's obsession with anger is its fundamental misunderstanding of what it even is?
While some of the alarmism around anger is justified, the reliance on extreme examples is giving us a distorted impression of what anger really is, how it can be expressed in ways that are healthy, and how it can help build connections rather than destroy them.
In this week's episode, John Lee is back to talk about how has been trying to help people understand the differences between anger and rage for decades.
Lee lays out the differences between anger and rage, (i.e., anger is a feeling; rage is an action) and helps us understand the destructive behaviors associated with enrage and outrage. He and Dan also offer some suggestions for men who want to learn how to recognize when anger is moving them into an emotionally regressive state; a state where they’re reacting to past events rather than responding to present circumstances.
