Aggression

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Splitting off from this thread to specifically focus on the issue of how people should deal with aggression.

I advocate releasing it in some way. Harmless ways of doing this are things such as listening to aggressive music or playing violent video games.

Chev advocates taming and controlling it.

Personally I can't see how taming and controlling aggression is a better solution than releasing - and I'm not even sure that it's a solution at all. It seems to me as though you'd be simply ignoring the problem and not using a perfectly good coping mechanism which humanity has developed.

So the question: Is it better to release or control aggression?

 

I'd say a controlled release is the would be the way about it. However, I find the best method is to simply not become agressive in the first place. The British 'Stiff upper-lip' serves very well in most circumstances so simply don't be offended when somebody tries. Of coarse you simply can't live your life without getting angry, at some stage or another somebody will play on your moral heartstrings and you'll get pissed off. Best way then is to release that anger in a non-voilent way if possible and playing a violent computer game is a good method since nobody gets hurt, except Fr4gM0nk3y-69's pride maybe...

 

I'm not even sure if this can be discussed coherently, because terms like "aggression" and "taming" and "releasing" have different meanings to different people. It seems like an odd lumping of responses into two such groups, in my mind, and the question is better answered with "what do you do when you feel aggressive?". (I would expect, though, on a site for computer RPG's, to have at least one person brazenly declare that he is a super-badass who has a lot of pent-up aggression, by no fault of his own, and will maim all those stupid losers who get in his way. Oh, and that's how he is "IRL" and everything.)

There is psychological sublimation, which is a coping mechanism under the psychoanalytic perspective, where you channel negative, destructive emotions (e.g. aggression or anxiety that you're sexually inadequate) toward positive/constructive ends (e.g. playing football or building skyscrapers). For what it's worth, though, the psychoanalytic perspective is given less credit these days.

But better that we should do something constructive, or at least harmless, than one day flip out and throw a colossal (and dangerous) tantrum.

 

Well, I don't think the question "what do you do when you feel aggressive?" is really what I was interested in discussing when I started this thread.

The article which chev and I were arguing over states that release of aggression is a positive thing and that video games are a useful way of doing this. Chev disagrees that releasing aggression is a positive way of addressing the problem.

So what I'm wondering here is whether there are any harmful effects that come with releasing aggression, rather than controlling it.

To try and make the conversation coherent though here is what I'm defining the terms you noted as:

Aggression: A strongly negative emotion, especially anger or hate.

Taming: Stoping aggression from manifesting externally and dealing with it through internal means (chev: is this the same definiton that you're using?)

Releasing: Dealing with aggression through external means

 

Of course release it, preferably in a harmless way like video games. Because it grows as long as it stays inside.

 

It takes a lot to get my aggressive enough that I lose my temper. Then when I do, it lasts for about 5 seconds, I shout and swear and punch a wall or break something then I'll calm down. So I release it, I don't agree with bottling anything up. Things just build and build and build until one day you just explode.

 

I've sided with taming for a long time.

I've recently realised that it doesn't work at all - instead I've ended up attacking people, usually without even noticing it.

So I'd side with releasing it.

 

I'm not sure that computer games release it. I think some people gets more aggressive after they play those games. Sports may be better for releasing anger.

 

Yeah but in sports you have the possibility of actually harming someone else. Video games don't hurt anyone in real life (so far as we can tell).

 

Arguably video games desensitize us to violence, or are at least a less healthy activity compared to sports. As far as injuries go for sports, they're not commonly caused by aggression (at least for typical games) as so much they're just caused by accidents and hasty preparation.

Sure, but the idea of the post implicity says that aggression is only released or tamed; what I was suggesting was that you (or chev or whoever) may not be looking at aggression in the right terms -- you may want to get a more psychological perspective of it first.

 

When I get angry, my muscles burn and want to release their power, and doing physically challenging activities is a good way to release that burning power. Punching the walls is another alternative

 

Same here. I don't actually get that angry very often. I'm usually pretty laid back.

 

Oaz: Can you suggest where this perspective may be gained? I'm not really sure what other options there are besides releasing vs taming, and am not sure where I'd go and find out about them...

I'm not convinced that people become aggressive (or more aggressive) after playing violent video games. Do you have anything to support this point?

Besides, sports are not at beck and call. A sport has to be organised, and unless you have a sports team that you can ring up when you feel pissed off I can't really see playing sports being a useful option (though I suppose a punching bag could work - but how is that any less aggression-inducing than shooting people in a game?).

 

My best guess is to look it up in a psychology textbook or the like; barring that, you could use Wikipedia or Google, but you'd probably get shoddy results. Taming and releasing may be valid terms to look at it, but not necessarily the best, although I don't know how/if psychologists really look at aggression and anger therapy.

 

My point of view is a bit more complex than just the idea that releasing aggression is the wrong thing. Part of it is what Abomination said: the best thing is not to get aggressive at all.

My view is that if you feel aggression towards some person such that you would actually like to punch him, it's not normal. Not unless you've been seriously provoked with something big and meaningful. So, for example, if you feel you could punch your own sibling or parent or child, you don't need to kick an inanimate object instead. You need a reality check. And probably something long-term.

Is it better to tame it and hold it rather than take it out on inanimate objects? Who knows. I don't know what's better for you in the long run, but in the kallos k'agathos good and pretty terms, taking it out on animals and chattels is neither pretty nor good.

In fact, what's best is not to let it accumulate at all. That can't be done without realising that violence is not a solution and with countering the vengeful urges with a more reality-based sense of justice. And a certain sense of morality to curb it all.

The thing is, you (a generic you, you as a human person) need to be the master of your urges, not the urges a collective master of your self. Taking it out on animals is a crime. Taking it out on chattels or in games has the vibe of understanding aggression as something independent of will. "I need to kill something pixelated or I'm going to erupt." "Killing these here n00bs will prevent me from hitting my wife." This way, a human person begins to see himself in the light of simple action-reaction impulse-response involuntary schemes. And that's an erroneous view. My fist doesn't go to my friend's nose on its own. The command comes from my brain. If I act as if the control is not there, I relinquish it. In relinquishing that control, I become an animal. It's below human dignity.

"Don't piss me off or I'll have to kill you!" "Stop or I'll have to hit you." "Shut up or I'll have to make you." You won't. You don't. You don't have to. You elect to. And if you don't elect but it just happens, then you're an animal. Simple as that.

Even psychologists and perhaps therapists, and surely many parents these days make the mistake of calculating the level of aggression into the person's position in a conflict they are solving. As if, apart from certain facts and certain feelings, aggression were something deserving consideration. The fact is, however, that aggression deserves nothing and merits nothing. Aggression is not grounds for any concession whatsoever and the fact that someone will erupt if he doesn't get what he wants doesn't lend any credit to his points. It doesn't make his arguments any better. He needs to deal with erupting.

And my point is: be a man, not a male. Learn to control it. Be the master of it, don't let it drive you.

 

I'm with Chev on this one, aggression is something we have full control over and furthermore something that should be controlled. I often feel stabs of anger when dealing with my manager or boss, but to act on the consequential urge for aggression would not only lose me my job, but perhaps also end in a a lawsuit. We are intelligent, conscious creatures and should act as such.

I play violent computer games, but not to vent my aggression. I like the idea that when everything in the real world stresses me out I can retire to that world of fantasy and release for a time, not so I can beat the crap out of something that can't do a damn thing about it.

I am not a highly strung person, and I've never been in a fight, yet I don't feel like I'm "bottling" anything up, and I find it no harder now to keep my temper than I ever have.

 

Oh, I'm pretty mellow about most things and it takes alot to get me riled, angry or even upset. Yet when I am angry there better be a pressure valve somewhere because I will take out my anger on the source of said anger - usually another person. Thankfully the things that make me angry like that are usually somebody else harming another so it's not so much anger as righteous fury.

Only if somebody is intentionally trying to be malicious do I ever get angry and usually in those situations violence is warrented

 

Hmm, okay, I now understand and respect your point of view on this one.

I have no wish to adopt that attitude myself, but I can understand why you might want to. Aggression needs to be controlled to the extent that it is socially acceptable to express (i.e. don't punch your boss), but beyond that I see little reason to not treat it as any other emotion and use it to what ends that it's good for.

After all, getting angry can have positive effects. It can inspire you to get off your arse and change things. Even if just for that reason I don't think that it should be done away with entirely. Not letting everything slide past without comment is worth the unpleasantness that is being angry, imo.

So - channel aggression to constructive ends or - lacking a manner in which to do that, release it in a relatively harmless way.

But your position works too

 

I think that both methods are needed to curb aggression. It's ultimately the goal that we can tame our tempers to the point where we don't seek to harm other people, but where that temper is a threat to get the better of us, we control our outward behaviour (the Stiff Upper Lip thing) until we can get away from the situation that pisses us off and release it in a less harmful way (I have, through carelessness hurt my fist on a careless punch to an uncaring wall)...

 

On a personal level, the methods suggested for releasing it wouldn't work. Aggressive music fuels an aggressive mood - for instance it makes me drive faster. As I am not particularly good at shoot-em-up type games, I tend to get more frustrated with them.

However, physical activity such as heavy digging or chopping wood definitely does work. It channels the aggression, whilst allowing the calmness of nature to seep into the subconsciousness.

Otherwise, I would profess relaxing music is far better for removing aggressive feelings, or even just going out for a long walk in the countryside with the dog.