ABSTRACT
Anger motivates and overrides other emotions. Do people who are violent, or prone to violence, have a mental illness like alienation, bipolar syndrome, PTSD, or another psychological debility (neuroticism or psychosis) that lends itself to uncontrollable anger and violence? Studies have shown that anger has led to heroism as well as non-specific motivation, other than hostility, for repressed anger to burst out in unnecessary, often lethal violence. One type of anger is an instinctual reaction to being trapped or hurt (fear). Another type of reaction is to the perception of being intentionally harmed or mistreated by others. (“I was in fear for my life.”) The third type of anger, which includes irritability, reflects an individual’s personal character habits.
