ABSTRACT
Sigmund Freud suggested that aggression is a normal drive set off by frustration, and learned in early childhood from the effectiveness in getting mothers to react, of temper tantrums and less dramatic shows of anger. Adverse factors are parents who are at odds with each other, whose attitudes are rejecting or overindulgent, who do not set reasonable rules and monitor their child's behaviour, and who resort, inconsistently, to threats and physical punishment. Adolescent boys, in particular, are more likely to be aggressive if their early experience is of a negativistic or resentful mother, who accepts violence as the norm. Verbal aggression is a stepping stone towards damage to property, then physical assault. For most people learned inhibitions act as a series of barriers – to obscene language and the various forms of violence. Self-harm is a particular form of violence may stop short at a minimal overdose of sleeping tablets, involve self-mutilation, or careful planning for a lethal outcome.
