The repression of anger and its consequences.

Aggressiveness is a constitutional part of who we are. Throughout evolution and the beginning of life in society, we have had to adapt, moderating this aggressiveness and establishing rules that allow the maintenance of the community. However, aggressiveness continues to exist, in many cases, it remains repressed until it is abruptly or violently discharged.

There are many ways to release aggressiveness. Destructive impulses find a way of channeling in art and sports, for example.

Anger is an emotion associated with aggressiveness. It usually arises when something is presented as an obstacle in the realization of our intentions. It is closely linked to frustration.

Culturally, there is a tendency to claim the repression of anger, especially of women. The cult of obedience, kindness, and image ends up leading most people to repress or ignore their aggressive, envious, jealous and competitive parts. Not knowing them keeps them in an unattainable place, in the shadows, preventing us from accepting and adequately communicating what these emotions tell us.

It is not strange to observe extremely correct, punctilious, and irreproachable people from the social point of view, exploding in uncontrollable anger. Freud, in this regard, asserted that "the more perfect a person looks on the outside, the more demons he has inside." Jung places special emphasis on the fact that the personal Shadow is made up of all the traits that we have rejected, that we have excluded in the process of constructing the Self, and, above all, of the mask, that which we do want to show of ourselves.

Having said that, we can think about the importance of being able to connect with those dark aspects in order to access their background and glimpse more completely the different facets of our personality.

It is very important to clarify that accepting anger and aggressiveness does not imply, in any way, giving them free rein. Being aware of these aspects can allow us to channel them in a healthier way, it allows us to access them, preventing them from taking over us in most cases, leading us to act impulsively and often in an extreme way.

When violence and anger take over an individual, as can also happen with other aspects, he no longer has control or record of what he does. In primitive cultures, such states were considered 'demonic possession'. Today we can think that these possessions are actually aspects of the unconscious that take control of the subject.

Suppressed anger can also lead to the development of physical illnesses. Emotions have a manifestation through the body and, if they are not expressed or put into words, they can potentially generate harmful effects on health.

Being aware of anger and aggressiveness and finding adequate communication and discharge channels help emotional balance and allow us to recognize aspects of ourselves that, being hidden, can generate complex consequences.

In the background of anger, there is often frustration or a position of vulnerability that is rejected, or some desire that cannot be communicated. If we allow this acknowledgment and expression, the link to our anger changes. 

We will always have shadow aspects because we cannot make everything aware, but the greater contact with our unconscious aspects, the greater self-knowledge, and the possibility of choice.

 

Thank You