AGGRESSION AS AN INFERIOR PSYCHOLOGICAL REACTION TO ESCAPE STRESS
In stress there is an over-alertness of brain cells. They fire off more easily than they should to minor stimuli which in normal circumstances would go unheeded. The result of this situation is that our aggression is aroused easily, and we tend to react with aggressive behaviour in a way that is less than appropriate.
This basic neurological state of affairs is aggravated by the sense of frustration that stress brings. We don’t like being under stress. It means we have failed somewhere. We feel hostile about it. Hostile to ourselves and this is easily transferred to others in the form of aggression.
If we let fly our aggression, it means that the over-alert brain cells discharge, and there comes to us a period of relative tranquility. This is a common experience. We get angry. Blow off our aggression, and then quieting down. Some people get into this inferior way of coping with stress. They do not do it consciously. It is just something that happens. They feel tensed up with stress. Then with some trivial irritation they blow up, and their tension from their stress is relieved. With some people this becomes a habitual reaction and, of course destroys, not only the quality of their own life, but also that of those around them, particularly husband or wife, whichever the case may be.
In this respect it is worthwhile noting that different fashions appear in clinical psychology and psychiatry. For the last ten years or so there has been a foolish vogue of encouraging patients to learn to blow off their aggression rather than bottle it up. What should be done, of course, is to show the patient how to let his mind run smoothly so that his aggression does not build up.
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