Anger IssuesSome people cause irreversible harm to themselves or loved ones during emotional states that we know will change. Trivial provocations may evoke verbal or physical aggression. Disinhibited emotional reactions are characteristic of alcohol intoxication [please visit Problem Drinking], structural damage resulting from head injury or disease [please visit Cognitive Rehabilitation], and childish mentality [please visit Advanced Cognitive Strategies]. Consider Dr. Jekyll: He loves his wife, and generally treats her well, except when he is angry at her. The first time he hit her, it surprised her and she told him she would leave, but he begged her to stay and swore he would never do it again. Like an alcoholic who swears he will never drink again, Dr. Jekyll meant what he said, but the next time he was in a bad mood he became a different person. Again, Mr. Hyde failed to inhibit the aggression as Dr. Jekyll promised. Dr. Jekyll has tender thoughts of his wife, and memories of good times past come easily to mind - bad thoughts and images are far away. But when he is in his Mr. Hyde trance it seems that she is always looking at other men and never treats him with respect. Now the tender feelings he has for her are unavailable. The trance formation from Jekyll to Hyde is invisible to him - at each moment he believes he sees the world as it really is. Dr. Jekyll is no fool and yet makes the same error again and again. Like you, he can easily see the perceptual biases of others, but is blind to his own in real time. In retrospect he is full of remorse, but that does not stop him from repeatedly injuring his loved ones and himself. Because it is the perceptual system itself that is biased, we are always blind to our current bias. Whether we are angry or in love we assume we are reacting to objective truth rather than to our state dependent construction of reality The inability to over-ride anger or other emotional states so that you can behave in accord with your interests is a consequence of the mentality of childhood. "Mental health is the process of trading one set of problems for a more interesting set of problems" - Nathaniel Brandon |