Contents

Preface 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

Anger

The Misunderstood Emotion