colonel@gloria.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman) (07/15/85)
["By George! I actually knocked him down without any extra spinach!"] > >Anger is a defense mechanism against feeling pain. When you are hurt, you > >can either feel the pain and cry, or block it and be angry. The problem with > >blocking it is that it builds up and eventually must be released. By > >constant catharsis you can avoid overreacting to a given stimulus, responding > >with only the reaction directly resulting from the stimulus, rather than > >with all the pent-up and unexpressed emotion which has been stored. This is > >a major factor in the rape and battery of women by men. > > So what you are saying here is that either one crys or retains the pain? > That there is no other way of delaing with pain or anger? Hogwash! > Oh...I see. Women get the anger out by crying, and men get the anger out > by beating and raping? ... > I seem to be unique, according to your reasoning. I have found other > ways to get the anger out of my system. You're both partly right. Anger is a defense, but it defends you from being injured, not from feeling pain when you're injured. (Pain is itself a defense against neglecting your injuries.) When you are hurt, you feel pain. You can either cry (grief) or attack the person who injured you (anger). Anger is a condition of the moment; if you suppress it by freezing the muscles involved in fighting, you miss the boat forever. Any "cathartic" action you take later will relieve the muscle blockage, not the anger. That goes for rapists, too; have you ever met a relaxed one? -- Col. G. L. Sicherman UU: ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel CS: colonel@buffalo-cs BI: csdsicher@sunyabva