Dramatic Anger

[electric discordian]

Watching alot of dramas recently I fancied questioning exactly why any character smashes up a room to denote upset? Why is a broken house dramatic short hand for a broken heart? Surely if your wife was mudered by rabid badgers with spoons the loneliness would be that much greater after you have put your foot through your 48" plasma screen.

Why would smashing your Xbox make you feel better than sitting down with a friend and talking it through? More to the point why have I started following this trend? Why did I hurl my phone at a wall after the thirteenth cold call that day?

Your thoughts would be helpful in this matter as I am usually quite laid back and relaxed.

 

[kurozen]

Well if you want some amatuer psychology, it can be attributed to the person feeling frustrated and helpless. They typically feel anger or remorse for their inability to prevent whatever it was from happening. By destroying these objects, the person feels like they are actually doing something, that these objects are subject to their control. When they are unable to cope with strong feelings or emotions, people can act out, often times in an aggressive/destructive manner. These actions are rarely cathartic though and typically act as merely a form of distraction from the main issue.

 

[TheBluesader]

Well if you want some amatuer psychology, it can be attributed to the person feeling frustrated and helpless. They typically feel anger or remorse for their inability to prevent whatever it was from happening. By destroying these objects, the person feels like they are actually doing something, that these objects are subject to their control.

Dead on, boss. Sadness doesn't lead to smashy-time. Rage leads to smashy-time, and rage comes out of sadness when you feel like it's pinned you down and left you helpless. I think there's usually a big helping of self-hatred in a lot of these situations too, and nothing leads to self-destructive behavior faster than concluding you're a failure and can't do anything proactive about it. So bye-bye, alarm clock that didn't go off again.

 

[Jark212]

lol, every once and a while you'll see someone flip out IRL. I think it's funney, but if you really think about it, it's kinda sad. I would never destroy something of value out of rage, I overthink things-it's a curse.

 

[aswiftlytiltingreality]

I've totally smashed some stuff up. I don't like crying, something made me cry, so I got really angry and broke some stuff. It happens.

 

[Noamuth]

I have a bad temper and I finding hitting things does help, but I try not to do it. If I ever break anything of value or hit someone (few close calls there), I would just get more upset than angry. Which would suck. Also, having sore knuckles is frustrating too.

To make things more annoying, while I have an awesome boxing bag.. I can't use it, because I don't have room for it to be set up and my elbows are pretty well fucked up, so punching it with force could do more damage.

So at the moment, while I understand why people break things to vent anger, I personally try to avoid it now. This however has caused a slight problem, since I need to find another outlet. *sigh*

 

[Matthicus]

I think it's because hitting things and being violet is cathartic. Everyone has little bits of aggression that build up when something bad happens. Usually people save it up and bottle it so that when something happens to really set them off, they just have to hit something.

 

[Gxas]

I haven't been able to hit things for years. There was nothing in my house for me to hit...
Six years of pent-up frustration, anger, and stress is very unhealthy... I need to go kill something...