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CATHARSIS

Sigmund Freud, an influential proponent of catharsis, believed that repressed fury could build up and fester, much like steam in a pressure cooker, to the point that it caused psychological conditions like hysteria or trip-wired aggression. The key to therapy and rosy mental health, said Freud and his followers, is to dampen the pressure of negative feelings by talking about them and releasing them in a controlled manner in and out of treatment. The Marvel comic book and movie character, "The Hulk," is a metaphor for what happens when we fail to control the rage lurking at the fringes of consciousness. When mild-mannered Bruce Banner lets too much anger build up, or when he is provoked, he morphs into his rampaging alter-ego, the Hulk. Anger, popular psychology teaches us, is a monster we must tame. A host of films stoke the idea that we can do so by "letting off steam," "blowing our top," "getting things off our chest," and "getting it out of our system." In Analyze This, for example, a psychiatrist (played by Billy Crystal) advises a New York Gangster (played by Robert De Niro) to hit a pillow whenever he's angry. In Network (1976), an angry news anchor (played by Peter Finch) implores irate viewers, outraged by the high price of oil, the plummeting economy, and the country being on war footing, to release their frustrations by opening their windows and hollering, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." In response to his urgings, millions of Americans do just that. And it's not just the movies. Many self-help books also counsel venting as a method for anger management. Self-help author John Lee, for instance, suggests that rather than "holding in poisonous anger," it's better to "punch a pillow or a punching bag. And while you do it, yell and curse, and moan and holler. Punch with all the frenzy you can. If you are angry with a particular person, imagine his or her face on the pillow or punching bag, and vent your rage physically and verbally." Similarly, George Bach and Herb Goldberg have recommended an exercise dubbed "The Vesuvius," named after the Italian volcano that caused the destruction of Pompeii in A.D. 79. With this exercise, "individuals can vent their pent-up frustrations, resentments, hurts, hostilities, and rage in a full-throated, screaming outburst." Even some brands of psychotherapy incorporate such techniques to deal with angerencouraging clients to scream, hit pillows, or throw balls against walls when they become angry. Proponents of "primal therapy," often informally called "primal scream therapy," believe that psychologically troubled adults must release the emotional pain produced by infant and childhood trauma by discharging this pain, often by

screaming at the top of their lungs. Some cities, including Atlanta, Georgia, still have primal therapy centers. Some cathartic therapeutic techniques are arguably even more bizarre. People in the town of Castejon, Spain, now practice "Destructotherapy" to relieve office stress: Men and women destroy junked cars and household items with sledgehammers to the beat of a rock band playing in the background. This "therapy" may have been inspired by the film Office Space, in which angry workers who hate their jobs and their boss take an copying machine to a field and beat it mercilessly with a baseball bat. At the very least, research psychologists and psychotherapists should more clearly define "catharsis." It is not playing or watching sports, writing stories about aggression, fighting in a war, shocking someone in an experiment, watching someone hit a Bobo doll, or watching TV violence. It is well documented that watching, fantasizing, or acting out violence increases the probability that you will be more violent in the future. In contrast, the end result of catharsis is, in many cases, peace and calm, not aggression. Averill & Nunley (1993) say expressing emotions in therapy can change a person's view and interpretation of the situation. Also, expressing an emotion, such as anger, can result in finding ways to change the irritating situation. Once the released emotion is discussed with a therapist or friend, you are in a better position to make plans for coping with the feelings and the circumstances. Obviously, some people can calm themselves down, i.e. reduce their anger. Anger control and health seem to be related to feeling in control (see self-efficacy in chapter 14), trusting and accepting others or at least not seeing them as mean, selfish, and exploitative, and being able to assertively express our negative feelings (see chapter 13). These are skills many of us need to learn (Lewis & Bucher, 1992).

These shenanigans aside, research suggests that the catharsis hypothesis is false. For more than 40 years, studies have revealed that encouraging the expression of anger directly toward another person or indirectly (such as toward an object) actually turns up the heat on aggression. In one of the earliest studies, people who pounded nails after someone insulted them were more, rather than less, critical of that person afterward. Moreover, playing aggressive sports like football, which are presumed to promote catharsis, boosts aggression. And playing violent video games like Manhunt, in which bloody assassinations are rated on a 5-point scale, is associated with increased aggression in the laboratory and everyday life. So getting angry doesn't "let off steam." It merely fans the flames of our anger. Research suggests that expressing anger is helpful only when it's

accompanied by constructive problem-solving designed to address the source of the anger. So if we're upset at our partner for repeatedly showing up late for dates, yelling at him or her is unlikely to make us feel better, let alone improve the situation. But calmly and assertively expressing one's resentment ("I realize you probably aren't doing this on purpose, but when you show up late it hurts my feelings") can often go a long way toward resolving conflict.

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