Areas › Anger › What anger actually is
Name what kind of anger it is and you have usually named the fear as well. Each sort of anger points at something the person is trying not to lose.
That is the practical use of sorting anger into types. It turns a vague, hot presentation into something specific to work on: this one is about being found out, that one is about not being in control, another is about being left. Worth saying plainly that these categories are a working tool from the clinic rather than a scientifically established set.
Qur’an and Sunnah
He is fretful when misfortune touches him (Quran 70:20). The verse names the raw reaction that arrives before anger has shaped it into anything.
إِذَا مَسَّهُ ٱلشَّرُّ جَزُوعࣰ ا
he is fretful when misfortune touches him
Qur’an 70:20read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A systematic comparison of negative emotions found that regret, guilt, shame, anger and sadness are experienced as distinct states, each with its own reading of what has happened. That supports being precise about what somebody is feeling instead of lumping it all together. It does not validate any particular list of anger types, which stays a clinical convenience rather than a tested taxonomy.
van Tilburg WA, Igou ER. (2017). Boredom begs to differ: Differentiation from other negative emotions.. Emotion (Washington, D.C.) doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Naming the fear gives you something you can treat, where anger on its own gives you only heat.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
Anger is not something to get round to next month. One bad half hour can cost a job, a marriage or a criminal record.
Some of what you will hear about anger is solid, and some is a teacher's own theory delivered with the same confidence. It is fair to ask which one you are getting.
Before you reach for a technique, notice what you privately think anger is. A room can hear disapproval underneath even a well chosen intervention.