Psychology and Pedagogy of Anger

by Roy Franklin Richardson

The feeling of friendliness toward the offender may follow anger which has been successfully expressed. Spinoza was right when he said, “An act of offense may indirectly give origin to love.” It is frequently observed in the after-period of anger, “I felt more friendly toward him after my emotion had disappeared.” In fact an unusual friendliness with a desire to bestow favors was often observed. We like a man better after we have been angry at him in a successful manner. The emotional attitude is entirely changed toward an opponent who has been overcome, if he allows the victory. It is the unreasoning person who never becomes aware of his defeat, against whom hate follows anger.

Feelings of unpleasant irritation usually follow anger when social or other conditions prevent adequate expression. These feelings seem to be the medium by which the situation exciting anger is repeatedly recalled. The emotion which appears from the imagined situation usually does not leave such intense unpleasant feelings, as the subject tends to attain in his deliberate moments, to some degree, an inner victory over his opponent, or to find an adequate excuse for his behavior. Either of these reactions may be successful enough to exclude irritable feelings in the after-period. Irritation after controlled anger is the medium for the so-called transfer of the emotion from an offending to an unoffending object, which is so often observed. In the after-period of irritation, it is a rather common observation of the subjects, “I was looking for something or somebody at whom I could get angry.” “I felt I wanted to hurt somebody.” In fact irritation in the after-period becomes an essentially affective element in a situation from which may arise a new anger of a different type. The first anger may have arisen from a fore-period of humiliation, while the latter is from that of irritation.

There is evidence that the affective state in the after-period of anger has a compensating relation to the emotion that has just passed, not unlike the compensation role played between the anger proper and the feeling fore-stage from which it arises. The reactive stage of anger tends to over-compensate for the unpleasant feelings of irritation and humiliation in the fore-period of anger by either increasing the pleasantness or diminishing unpleasantness. If the reaction is incomplete and has not adequately met the emotional crisis of the moment, irritation may follow with a tendency to continue further the emotion, or if the reaction has gone too far, it is paid for by the appearance in the after-stage of other emotions of social origin, such as fear, shame, pity, etc. The feeling of relief occurs after the expression has nearly restored consciousness to about the same affective level as before the beginning of the emotion; but with active pleasure, a higher affective level has been attained and the subject feels he was glad to have been angry. There is a heightened effect in the affective state following anger; a sort of over-compensation, which is a little out of proportion to the behavior apart from the anger itself. If the after-period is one of pleasantness, the feeling is increased far more because of what the subject has done during the emotion, for it is evident if the same mental processes and behavior occur without anger, the pleasantness is less. Joy is a good example of the intensification of the emotion in the after-period of anger which is out of proportion to the idea stimulating it. The relation between the fore-period, the anger proper, and the after-period is so intimate in anger that the writer has had it repeatedly impressed upon him in making the present study, that to solve some of the important problems of our emotional life, this relation must be taken into account. The entire gamut of the emotional consciousness for each emotion must be studied from the initial feeling stage to the termination of the conscious content after the emotion has disappeared. The emotions do not appear as separate effective entities, but have an intimate relation which is important in the study of their psychology.

Mild anger may leave the subject in a state of curiosity. A feeling of doubt as to the motivation of the offender may appear, and curiosity follows with an awareness of a tendency for anger to reappear if the occasion should arise. After the emotion has passed, the subject is aware of tendencies or attitudes, referring directly to the mental behavior, which were present during the emotion. An attitude of indifference toward the offender and offending situation follows what has been called the indifferent type of reaction. The emotion of anger may leave the subject in a state of confidence toward himself, positive self-feelings have been reached as a result of the entire experience. On the other hand, slightly reduced self-feelings may follow if the reaction to anger has been unsuccessful. It may leave the subject in either a heightened or a lowered opinion of the offender. A previously friendly interest in the person committing the offense may be increased or otherwise. A feeling of amusement at one’s behavior when recalling it after the emotion has disappeared, is often reported. The subject stands off, as it were, and views his own response to anger as if he were a spectator rather than a partaker of his emotion. What the subject did when angry seems so incongruous with his mental state after the emotion has disappeared, that it strikes him as ludicrous. Laughter and amusement frequently appear in the recall of the emotional situation.

An attitude of caution often follows. After a period of stressed inhibition, in which the evil consequences of a too impulsive behavior have been pre-perceived, there is assumed an attitude of control and at the same time a readiness to respond to a suitable stimulus. Anger may leave in its place an attitude of greater determination to make one’s point, or if the emotion has been entirely satisfactory, the subject takes the attitude that the score has been settled. An attitude of belief or conviction as to a future course of action toward a like offense may follow in the period after anger, which is a direct result of the conclusion reached when the emotion was present. Mild anger may have changed the feeling tone but little, but leaves the subject primed and ready to respond more quickly to another offense. The result of anger may be purely a practical attitude as to what should be done in such cases with little marked feeling accompanying it. The subject is left not in a fighting attitude, but in one of preparedness to prevent the offense recurring. It is usually necessary in the after-period to reconstruct or modify the revengeful plans or conclusions which were formed when the emotion was intense. What seemed so justifiable during the emotion proper, after it has disappeared becomes strikingly inopportune. If the emotion has disappeared unsuccessfully and resentful feelings still linger, the subject wishes to execute the plans previously formed; but in the act of doing it, he usually finds difficulties of which he was not aware when the emotion was intense. An instance from A. will illustrate. He had been intensely angry at X. and had planned to tell him his opinion of his conduct. By the time he had opportunity to speak, the emotion had subsided. He observes, “I had at this point a severe struggle with myself. I wanted to tell him what I had planned; I felt I was inconsistent if I did not. On the other hand I was slightly apprehensive, not of X., but of making myself ludicrous. I recognized what I had not before, that I was not fully justified, and partially excused him for what he had done. But the tendency to do what I had planned still persisted, and I felt I would give anything if I could do it.” He reports further that although the emotion was now fear, at this point “the tendency to execute the plan, formed during the anger, persisted for about fifteen minutes of intense struggle with myself before it disappeared.” Tendencies in the after-period of the emotion, which refer to conclusions or resolutions reached during its active stage, at times, when they appear are passed over lightly and even with amusement.

The effects of anger may extend far beyond the period immediately after the emotion has disappeared. The more remote after-period, after the immediate effects have passed off or been modified, have important results in our mental life. The momentum, acquired during anger by determined emotional outburst, may be a reenforcement to volitional action and may allow old habits to be more quickly broken down and new ones formed. If an error has been repeatedly made with increased irritation, till the subject has been thoroughly aroused to anger at himself, the tendency to repeat the error is usually successfully forestalled by an attitude of caution and determination following the emotion. The possible failure may be prevented by mild anger at the imagined humiliating result, which increases volitional action to a point insuring success, and a new momentum is acquired which may have far reaching influences. Slight habitual mistakes, like errors in typewriting or speaking, repeated forgetting of details, and social blunders, are reported as cured by anger.

Mild prolonged anger which has not had a fully satisfactory expression may leave in its wake a fighting attitude which if transferred into work enables the subject to acquire new levels of activity. A record from C. will illustrate. He observes, “I would not allow myself to be dejected, but have planned to fight and dig into it like everything. These emotions are the greatest stimuli I have. I get angry, then I want to get down to work for all I am worth.” On the other hand, anger which has been successfully expressed may be followed by a feeling of satisfaction in the result and an attitude of success, which gives momentum for increased volitional action in the future.

There is usually a residuum from intense anger which may appear long after the anger has consciously disappeared. The recall of the situation which had previously excited anger may have little or no feeling; merely indifference is present. Sometimes feelings of resentment and dislike are observed, while at other times, there is amusement. It frequently happens that while the situation which has previously excited the emotion may be accompanied by indifference upon its being recalled either voluntarily or involuntarily, there follows an emotion of dislike and hate. The incident itself may be almost forgotten, or not recalled at all, but the result of anger is to be observed in tendencies and emotional dispositions left in the wake of the emotion. An over-critical attitude, with something of a gossipy tendency and hostile suspicion in which the bounds of justice are partly ignored, may long continue to reappear after the emotion itself has passed away and the situation has been forgotten. It is rather probable that a single strong outburst of anger does not leave the hostile emotional disposition in its wake. It is usually the mild anger, preceded by much feeling of humiliation and anger which tends to recur again and again till it has settled to a hostile disposition toward the offender. It is reported in some instances to refer to the offender’s way of talking, laughing, manner of walking, his mode of dressing; in fact any chance idea of the offender’s behavior may be sufficient to allow a feeling of dislike and disgust to appear.

It may be said that anger which disappears in an unsatisfactory manner leaves an emotional disposition which possesses potentialities of both pleasant and unpleasant feelings. Some persons seem to derive much satisfaction in picking the sores of their unhealed resentments; little acts of revenge and retaliation are suddenly hit upon; even hate may have its pleasures. Small acts of revenge and retaliation are observed with an affective state which cannot be called anger, but the subject is aware that it refers to the anger which is passed. One subject became severely angry at his grocer and went to trade with another merchant near by. He states that on several occasions just after the anger, when buying at another place he felt pleased at the other man’s having lost his trade. Once he observes, “I believe I bought several things I did not need, I felt I was retaliating and enjoyed it.” The emotional disposition following anger may be a source of rather intense enjoyment. Laughter and mirth are observed with the appearance of an idea that has humiliated the offender. In such cases the laughter is purely spontaneous with no recall of anger. Subject J. broke out laughing when told that X. was on unfavorable terms with Y. His laughter, he observes, referred to a resentment a few days before against X. In fact laughter frequently springs rather suddenly from the mental disposition which has followed from anger. Such cases afford another instance of the close intimacy of our emotions with each other. The residuum of potential feelings from an emotion of anger appears in the form of less active pleasantness.

There is a relation between the immediate after-period of anger and the more remote one that is important. If anger is immediately followed by such emotions as pity, shame, regret or fear, any positive tendency left over in the remote after-period from the emotion itself is apparently lacking. There is, however, a negative effect. The subject is immune to re-experience the same emotion from the same emotional situation again, but anger which has disappeared with unpleasant feelings may tend to recur in a rather prolonged after-period and may finally settle into an emotional disposition and mental attitude which play an important role in behavior and later feelings. It seems to be true, that when anger disappears consciously in such a manner that the subject is aware that his wishes have not been satisfied and the disappearance is followed by unpleasant feelings, the immediate after-period is rather barren as compared with the out-cropping which appears in a more remote period after the emotion. In anger, when sudden control is required, the subject is forced to attend to something else or react contrary to the emotional tendency to save himself a later humiliation. The immediate after-period is usually one of unpleasantness and tension. Under such circumstances, the tendency to recur again and again is characteristic and if, in some later recurrence or expression through the imaginative process, it does not end satisfactorily, it may settle down to an emotional disposition and mental attitude.