Think on this…

June 30, 2008 by Avy.

The Value of Anger

“As an emotion, anger gets a bad rap in our culture. We are supposed to avoid being angry. We associate anger with aggression, violence, domination, and oppression. People who are angry are often judged as irrational. In the world of therapy, we say that someone is ‘reactive’ and their reactivity is tied to earlier, unresolved issues. We also talk about anger as a secondary or defensive emotion, covering up more vulnerable primary emotions such as sadness, fear, and shame. So, our culture develops the message that anger is a negative emotion, a morally questionable emotion, and a lesser (’secondary’) emotion than other emotions we might feel. We start feeling ashamed to feel anger and feel like we need to control our anger.”

- Matthew S. Burgess Leary, PhD

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