ANGER – OLDER THAN ARISTOTLE

But Aristotle summed it up best:

“Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.”

To be human is to experience anger. Since the dawn of time, no life has escaped this emotion. So, how to manage it, understand it, overcome it – even accept it as essentially human – is no easy task. Most people grapple as best they can with the difficulties anger brings into their lives. Yet, most people are – by varying degrees – still able to function freely in society.

For others, anger spins out of control and leads to more devastating results. It leads to abuse, crime, imprisonment, recidivism, and rejection by society. These outcomes accrue cumulatively – while incarcerated, prior to incarceration, and afterward – contributing to the continuation of the vicious cycle of intergenerational incarceration.

This self-help book, long a staple of the American Correctional Association (ACA), is aimed at those who are incarcerated and entrenched in this emotion. It has proven strategies for managing, understanding, and overcoming anger. It includes exercises and examples specific to their situation. It guides them to know themselves, especially how they think, how they got to where they are now, how they can recognize and control their triggers, change their lives, and break the cycle.

This may not be easy, Aristotle. However, it is worth the hard work and rugged effort. For, as the Bible says:

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” (Proverbs 16:32 King James Version)