“Anger is said by the sages to be “a short madness” that carries the mind away and can be many times more hurtful than the injury that caused it. But other sages say “noble anger” makes any coward brave and brings back….. strength.” This, quoted from the book, accurately describes the depiction of anger from the human experience. Anger is a universal behavior, with similar facial expressions and feeling throughout every human culture. Whether anger is personally perceived as “a creator of more hurtful reaction than the initial injury that caused it,” or as “a state which makes any coward brave and brings back strength,” all relates to the personal method one has in dealing with anger itself.
Many articles and books on aggression in our society advise that “even hostile” outbursts can be better than bottling up anger. “When irritated, should we go ahead and curse, tell a person off, or retaliate?” Advice to “ventilate,” as it is often referred to, is quite typical in our and other individualized cultures; but seldom will you hear such advice in a more group or family based culture. The fact is that ventilation can be self-gratifying in a moment of feud, but it can also have lasting and socially damaging effects. Individualized cultures that advice “ventilation” assume that it provides “emotional release,” or catharsis (the reduction of anger by releasing it through aggressive action or fantasy). I believe that immediate expression, or “venting” of anger may be temporarily calming and quite self-gratifying, but most likely will be followed by guilt social destruction in its wake. Ventilation may also cause retaliation by the opposite party. Ebbe Ebbesen saw this when they interviewed 100 frustrated engineers and technicians just laid off by an aerospace company. Some were asked questions the released hostility, such as, “What instances can you think of where the company has not been fair with you?” Later when this group filled out a questionnaire to see if the anger had “drained,” Ebb found that, compared to those workers that had not vented their anger, those who had exhibited more hostility. Although ventilation of anger is quite a popular concept in western society, it may have damaging social and emotional effects.
