Synopses & Reviews
"This landmark book" (San Francisco Chronicle) dispels the common myths about the causes and uses of anger -- for example, that expressing anger is always good for you, that suppressing anger is always unhealthy, or that women have special "anger problems" that men do not. Dr. Carol Tavris expertly examines every facet of that fascinating emotion -- from genetics to stress to the rage for justice.
Fully revised and updated, Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion now includes:
x A new consideration of biological politics: Should testosterone or PMS excuse rotten tempers or aggressive actions?
x The five conditions under which anger is likely to be effective -- and when it's not.
x Strategies for solving specific anger problems -- chronic anger, dealing with difficult people, repeated family battles, anger after divorce or victimization, and aggressive children.
Review
"Witty, provocative, and impressively documented, this work lights a candle in cursed darkness." Los Angeles Times
Review
"This book is not only the best of its kind ever written, but the most helpfully enlightening I have ever read." Dr. Ashley Montagu,
author of The Nature of Human Aggression
Review
"Intelligent and witty, Tavris shows us how to use the anger of hope to avoid falling into the anger of despair." The New York Times
Review
"Enlightening and reassuring. Her calm approach to a volatile subject is a welcome tonic for our times." Philadelphia Inquirer
Synopsis
"This landmark book"
(San Francisco Chronicle) dispels the common myths about the causes and uses of anger -- for example, that expressing anger is always good for you, that suppressing anger is always unhealthy, or that women have special "anger problems" that men do not. Dr. Carol Tavris expertly examines every facet of that fascinating emotion -- from genetics to stress to the rage for justice.
Fully revised and updated, Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion now includes:
* A new consideration of biological politics: Should testosterone or PMS excuse rotten tempers or aggressive actions?
* The five conditions under which anger is likely to be effective -- and when it's not.
* Strategies for solving specific anger problems -- chronic anger, dealing with difficult people, repeated family battles, anger after divorce or victimization, and aggressive children.
About the Author
Carol Tavris, Ph.D., earned her doctorate in social psychology from the University of Michigan. She was senior editor for several years of a then-new magazine, Psychology Today, and went on to develop a career as a teacher, lecturer, and psychology writer. She is coauthor (with Carole Wade) of The Longest War: Sex Differences in Perspective and an introductory textbook, Psychology. In addition to writing the "Mind Health" column for Vogue magazine, she has written many articles and book reviews on diverse issues in psychology for a wide variety of magazines, including The New York Times, Discover, Science Digest, Human Nature, New York, Harper's, Geo, Ms., Redbook, and Woman's Day. While living in New York, Tavris taught at the Human Relations Center of the New School for Social Research, and in Los Angeles she now teaches from time to time in the department of psychology at UCLA.
Table of Contents
ContentsPreface to the Second Edition
Acknowledgments
Introduction: A Point of View
1. Rage and Reason -- an Eternal Ambivalence
The Fallacy of the Swami's Snake
The Freudian Legacy
The Anger Business
The Use and Abuse of Anger
2. Uncivil Rites -- the Cultural Rules of Anger
The Judicial Emotion
A Brief Madness
Manners, Emotions, and the American Way
3. The Anatomy of Anger
Emotions and the Brain
Temper and Temperament: The Genetic Ingredient
The Fuel of Anger
Thinking About Feeling
Biological Politics
4. Stress, Illness, and Your Heart -- Myths of Suppressed Anger
Eating Disorders, Overweight, and Ulcers
Anger and Depression
The Stress Connection
Anger and Heart Disease
Considerations
5. "Getting It Out of Your System" -- Myths of Expressed Anger
Myth #1: Aggression
Myth #2: Talking Out Anger
Myth #3: Tantrums
The Conditions of Catharsis
6. "Seeing Red"
Frustration
Noise
Crowds
Drivers and Dawdlers
Alcohol
Exercise and Sports
Considerations
7. Shouters, Sulkers, Grouches, and Scolds -- Which Sex Has the Anger Problem?
The Stereotype Up Close
The Persistence of Myth
Two Cultures
8. The Marital Onion
The Onion Unpeeled
The Systems Solution
In Praise of Civility
9. A Rage for Justice
The Rationalizing Species
The Birth and Death of Anger
Temper of the Times
10. Rethinking Anger: Strategies for Living with Anger and Getting Beyond It
Chronic Anger
The Difficult Person
The Angry Divorce
The Aggressive Child
The Victim
Considerations
Further Reading
Notes
Bibliography
Index