ABSTRACT
Your home practice was to “Notice how many times you get angry.” Did it help? Actually anger tends to beget anger and resistance unless it is used sparingly. Righteous anger could beneficially make a clear imprint. But do we often use anger as a form of punishment, as a means of intimidation, a way to get children to move, to get our way? Look again at Page 25, line 7 from bottom, ff.; page 39, points Nos. 10 and 11; and page 41, line 17 to end of paragraph in your textbook. Anger even interferes with our training. Strong emotion turns off our children’s thinking and they are learning nothing, except maybe, “Mommy is mean and frightening.” Is anger really a necessary part of training? Do we need to be angry? Our children are not bad yet. They are learning, and we can cheerfully and persistently expect them to adopt better ways of behaving as they become convinced that they want to. This “convincing” we will provide with our training as one of their main teachers. This heavy use of anger, so prevalent in our culture, the Adlerian viewpoint hopes to persuade you to drop.
