THE INDIFFERENT REACTION
The third class of mental reactions to anger is what has been called the indifferent type. It is attitudinal in character. The subject assumes for the time an indifferent attitude toward the situation and person exciting the emotion. Eleven percent of the reactions of all the subjects studied may be classified under this type. It occurs as one of the last resorts when there is nothing else to be done. If it appears in the initial stage of anger, the emotion does not fully develop. It is not reported as actually pleasant but rather passively relieving for the time. Subject B. had received a piece of adverse information in a letter. He observes, “At first, I was angry and at once threw the letter down on the table in an attitude of not caring anything about it. I felt that nothing could be done. I had really wanted the information badly. I threw up my hands and moved my body suddenly with a ‘don’t care’ feeling.” B. reports that he recalled the situation several times later, but the anger did not appear again. The same subject recalling the offensive behavior of X. and Y. became angry, and observes, “I found myself saying aloud, ‘Oh confound them, I don’t care anything about them,’ and at once started to attend to something else. My saying I did not care, made me feel as if I did not care; in fact now I really did not care.” The sudden assuming of an apathetic attitude toward the developing anger is a frequent device of subject B. A. after a rather prolonged emotional reaction in which he imagined cutting remarks and planned how he would retaliate, suddenly changed his attitude, saying, “What is the use anyway, it is just X., I don’t care anything about him, I will let him go his way.” C. when angry at times reenforces an assumed attitude of indifference by saying to himself, “Here, you must not be bothered about such things, be a good sport and play the game.” One at times assumes an attitude of accepting the situation as it is, and dropping the matter.