Anger Management: Identifying, Understanding & Treating Unhealthy Anger

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else;
you are the one who gets burned.”
The Buddha

There are many types and perspectives of anger, from primitive to health and appropriate to pathological. Those perspectives of anger are presented in this course, as are clinical definitions, descriptions, mechanisms, impacts, and treatments for anger. “Anger management” has somehow become the butt of many jokes, and some programs’ limited efficacy has done little to improve public opinion. But, Anger Management programs based on research and psychotherapeutic models can have incredible benefit — not just on the life of that angry man or woman, but on all those in their environs.

This intermediate course is presented in 12 articles. The first three articles summarize a variety of approaches to and perspectives on anger and its treatment. The next article presents the research on the mechanisms of anger. The subsequent two articles explore circumstances associated with Sub Acute anger. Wexlar’s comprehensive Anger Management Program is presented in the fourth section of the course. The three articles that follow identify some of the pharmaceutical interventions that may be useful in the treatment of unhealthy anger. Finally, the last article provide a summary of the changes in the DSM-5 that impact the identification, assessment and treatment of disorders in which anger plays a part. Additional resources and references are provided for further study, but they are not part of the course.