Sunday, March 05, 2006
I come off sounding really angry
Watching Sunday Night Report on CBC, and they just had a story on anger in which they discussed with a psychologists about seven symptoms that indicate you have an anger problem. The final one was, “Do you find yourself trying to get your anger out?” Interestingly, trying to get your anger out is bad. Yes, I’ll say it again, when you’re angry it doesn’t help to yell and get mad, and expel it. The best thing to do is deal with it in a mature, compassionate and positive way. I know this from personal experience. It works for two reasons. First, you affect your own mood by acting in such a way that you realize that you are quite capable of controlling yourself and not being angry. Secondly, others will be more inclined to respond positively to you if you interact positively with them, thus affirming a motive for reciprocation. Nick and I were talking about control this morning, but in terms of power. We were attributing excessive materialism to people’s need for control over their lives (though we thought such efforts were misguided and in fact contradictory). Likewise, people seek self-control as their emotions have great affect on their day-to-day realities. Being able to control your anger is a huge factor in eudemonia. Many studies have shown that a great deal of anger actually stems from the frustration of being unable to manage your emotions. Rather than coping with them properly, we try and externalize them by attributing them to the actions of others – then we get violent – then people don’t like us – so we get sad – then we can’t express it – so we get angry – and then we get more violent, ad infinity.
This brings me to why I began this post in the first place. Sigmund Freud was a fucking idiot! Yes he was. Everyday I am reminded of how this fucker suckered western civilisation. It’s because of his stupid theory of the id and the superego, that psychologists have been telling us to “just let it out” for nearly a century now. Whacking your sister with a foam bat does not help. Nonetheless, and quite ironically, his ideas have so penetrated the collective subconscious that we can’t help but attribute legitimacy to his psychobabble. We filter all new psychological theories through his schema, so that when someone suggests we need to deal with our anger in a peaceful and progressive way, we feel like shrieking back at them: “You’re hurting my id! I am a fat rich white man, and I have certain innate tendencies towards power, greed, and sexual aggression. Where is my mommy? I need to decapitate my father and bone her right now!”
As painful as this is, here is an excerpt from Freud's infamous work, "Civilization and its Discontents," that may clarify some of my closing comments.
This brings me to why I began this post in the first place. Sigmund Freud was a fucking idiot! Yes he was. Everyday I am reminded of how this fucker suckered western civilisation. It’s because of his stupid theory of the id and the superego, that psychologists have been telling us to “just let it out” for nearly a century now. Whacking your sister with a foam bat does not help. Nonetheless, and quite ironically, his ideas have so penetrated the collective subconscious that we can’t help but attribute legitimacy to his psychobabble. We filter all new psychological theories through his schema, so that when someone suggests we need to deal with our anger in a peaceful and progressive way, we feel like shrieking back at them: “You’re hurting my id! I am a fat rich white man, and I have certain innate tendencies towards power, greed, and sexual aggression. Where is my mommy? I need to decapitate my father and bone her right now!”
As painful as this is, here is an excerpt from Freud's infamous work, "Civilization and its Discontents," that may clarify some of my closing comments.
// posted by Nicholas @ 11:06 PM 
Comments:
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there are some serious epistemic and methodological problems with trying to prove the Oedipus Complex, but good luck nonetheless.
honestly i'm curious -- how exactly are you planning on accomplishing this? what kind of method/s are you using?
honestly i'm curious -- how exactly are you planning on accomplishing this? what kind of method/s are you using?
apart from epistemic problems inherent to any psychoanalytical claim, i'm sure that one could construct a survey indicating that one seeks out in women qualities they also find in their father, sister, cousins, teacher, brother grandparents etc. assuming their mother is a kind, caring, intelligent person, why wouldn't they seek a woman with those things in common with her? does this indicate a perverse subconsious attraction to her? i doubt it. this is why frued pisses me off. his theories are so entrenched in the collective conscious that we automatically fit incoming information into his schemas -- thus affording legitimacy to ideas as absurd as the oedipus and electra complexes.
sorry -- i hope that didn't come off sounding mean. i just fuking hate freud.
sorry -- i hope that didn't come off sounding mean. i just fuking hate freud.
while i agree with most of what you're saying chuk, i do find one slightly flaw in your agrument.
"Many studies have shown that a great deal of anger actually stems from the frustration of being unable to manage your emotions."
anger is an emotion. you're treating it as though it's some sort of symptom individuals have when they cannot express themselves through other emotions. what about people who can't express themselves emotionally but turn to substances and addictions to compensate?
i see anger as a valid emotion and it can be a valid reaction to lots of situations. i am not at all stating that violence which derives from anger is good. i do agree with your idea on how one deals with your anger, however, it's still an emotion people deal with just like feeling happy or sad.
and as for “Do you find yourself trying to get your anger out?” would you supress feelings of happiness or channel them elsewhere? no. so why would you supress your anger? as i stated before, i don't agree with violence coming from anger, but there are other ways to "get it out" aside from the physical. like maybe, talking?
-michelle (again, too lazy to log in)
"Many studies have shown that a great deal of anger actually stems from the frustration of being unable to manage your emotions."
anger is an emotion. you're treating it as though it's some sort of symptom individuals have when they cannot express themselves through other emotions. what about people who can't express themselves emotionally but turn to substances and addictions to compensate?
i see anger as a valid emotion and it can be a valid reaction to lots of situations. i am not at all stating that violence which derives from anger is good. i do agree with your idea on how one deals with your anger, however, it's still an emotion people deal with just like feeling happy or sad.
and as for “Do you find yourself trying to get your anger out?” would you supress feelings of happiness or channel them elsewhere? no. so why would you supress your anger? as i stated before, i don't agree with violence coming from anger, but there are other ways to "get it out" aside from the physical. like maybe, talking?
-michelle (again, too lazy to log in)
# posted by 
: 2:33 PM
: 2:33 PM
michelle, i think the problem here is that anger is a construct as much as any other emotion is. in other words we have a wide range of emotions that seem to align themselves along some supposed spectrums which we choose to cut up however we like and assign neat little names to them. (to further complicate matters we all do this in different ways, although there is overlap, hence us being able to talk about them.) so yes anger is an emotion, but no it is not set in stone -- and hypothetically -- should we construct it differently this could vastly affect the way we think about it, act it out, and cope with it. in our society (following from frued), we tend to take anger for granted as something natural, and as something that needs to be acted out -- generally in a violent way. the debate seems to evolve around what degree of violence is excusable.
in response to your suggestion, talking about it, i mention this in my post. Also, of course anger can stem from anger, and sadness from sadness, and happiness from happiness. our emotions don't just happen to us, we interact with them in a dialectical manner. maybe i was too universal when i said "manage your emotions." what i meant was a general inability to manage ourselves in such away as to bring about positive emotions, such as happiness. we may externalize our frustration with ourselves by hurting others, or, you're right, we may drink it (what is that if not violence against self), or maybe both.
finally we don't need to channel away feelings of happiness because they are positive: those are the kind of emotions most folks want to feel.
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in response to your suggestion, talking about it, i mention this in my post. Also, of course anger can stem from anger, and sadness from sadness, and happiness from happiness. our emotions don't just happen to us, we interact with them in a dialectical manner. maybe i was too universal when i said "manage your emotions." what i meant was a general inability to manage ourselves in such away as to bring about positive emotions, such as happiness. we may externalize our frustration with ourselves by hurting others, or, you're right, we may drink it (what is that if not violence against self), or maybe both.
finally we don't need to channel away feelings of happiness because they are positive: those are the kind of emotions most folks want to feel.
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