Do modern psychologists agree with Leonard Berkowitz that to ventilate our anger is good for mental health?
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I guess the thing is, there is really no scientific truth in anything related to therapy or whatever. It's more of an art than a science. In fact, depending on what type of therapist you talk to, you'll probably hear different things regarding the management of anger. Me personally, I believe venting is very healthy because bottling things up is just a way to get you closer to your breaking point. Picture it as this, if you take a paper towel and you put marbles onto it. You can only put so many in until you add just that one more and the paper towel breaks and marbles go all over the place. Thats kind of how I illustrate bottling up anger. I do believe this ventilation needs to be done in a healthy way. Identifying your triggers and warning signs before you get angry and once you do, talking about it is best. If you wait until you need to vent physically, I say you waited too long. Some say it is better to go and beat on pillows or something. I disagree. This is making agression ok. It teaches you better ways to be angrier. I suppose someone with a VERY bad case of anger problems it may be ok to start with that and kind of try to shape their anger management skills, but only on very rare and extreme cases. In fact, I would wonder if you would even see cases like that in an outpatient level. You would probably see these extreme cases in jails or psych wards.
Its a GOOD THING TO VENT YOUR ANGER JUST NOT TOWARDS PEOPLE. If you DONT VENT ANGER YOU WILL MAKE YOURSELF PHYSICALLY ILL HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE ETC.
I don't know about scientific truths I just know my psychologist had me beat the hell out of allot of pillows. I guess you have to consider creative venting where you or anyone else is safe from a violent act. I believe venting an aggression helps keep me from stewing in my juices. When I vent my blood pressure does go down a little because I have satisfied an urge (controlled as it was)
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