E10. Please Pardon My ANGER: The Psychology of Difficult Emotions!

Please Pardon My ANGER: The Psychology of Difficult Emotions!

Audience: Fellow Clinicians, fellow strugglers with Irritation - Disgust - Anger - Rage, & those who love them.

Psychotherapy Adventurers:  Gamer Girl Heather, Super Bookworm Sarah, Squirrel Girl Debbie, & Doc Heath

Go to https://TherapyBites.myshopify.com & grab some A.R.T. LAB MERCH, specially designed to help keep this episode’s message “top of mind” in your life!  Don’t forget friends & family members who could use a mental boost too.

 

Show Summary:  In this episode . . .

TherapyBites Podcast is the home of A.R.T. LAB which investigates, explores, & educates all about the neuroscience of Accurate, Realistic Thoughts & Life Affirming Beliefs by challenging worn-out, unsubstantiated, ivory tower psychological theories as well as kool-aid drinking, pseudo-psychological social media clap-trap.

Today we venture into the deeper, darker recesses BENEATH the therapy couch to explore one of the MOST UNPOPULAR human experiences; a particularly difficult emotion often misunderstood by patients AND clinicians alike.

Should we lobby congress for a law against anger?  Judges routinely refer patients to us for “Anger Management”.  Two of our favorite actors, Jack Nicholson & Adam Sandler, tackled the topic in a 2003 movie by that very title.  Each day, we hear anger demonized as if it is a plague on par with pandemics.  But, pardon OUR anger at this, for what is so very pathological about anger, anyway?

Humans are actually engineered for anger and 9 other basic emotions; all completely normal to the human experience:  Happy, Sad, Mad, Glad, Disgusted, Ashamed, Stressed, Depressed, Anxious, & Angry are each ABILITIES common to humanity.   Imagine DELETING the difficult ones?  Red pill or blue pill?  Red pill? Presto!  All difficult emotions EVAPORATED for-ever!  A blessing? Or, a curse?

Join us on today’s episode as we DE-catastrophize ANGER and differentiate it from BEHAVIOR.  We can experience our anger AND engage in healthy, adaptive behaviors simultaneously.  Anger can add value and meaning to YOUR human experiences AND relationships.  

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For the full show notes, visit https://therapybites.podbean.com/e/anger

USEFUL REFERENCES:  

Dougherty DD, Shin LM, Alpert NM, Pitman RK, Orr SP, Lasko M, Macklin ML, Fischman AJ, Rauch SL. Anger in healthy men: a PET study using script-driven imagery. Biol Psychiatry. 1999 Aug 15;46(4):466-72. doi: 10.1016/s0006-3223(99)00063-3. PMID: 10459395.

Kashdan, T. and Biswas-Diener, R. (2014). The Upside of Your Dark Side: Why Being Your Whole Self—Not Just your “Good” Self—Drives Success and Fulfillment. New York: Hudson Street Press.

Staske, S. A. (1998). The Normalization Of Problematic Emotion In Conversations Between Close Relational Partners: Interpersonal Emotion Work. Symbolic Interaction, 21(1), 59–86. https://doi.org/10.1525/si.1998.21.1.59

 

FOR OUR READERS . . . GOBBLE UP THE WHOLE THING!!!  (Transcript): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1edXD-ImR1-RfRcW5C5yYFHzmioUMf8yMHFk3Oy1UWQA/edit?usp=sharing