‘Aggression’ at Psychology, Philosophy and Real Life, Page 5

Often when someone says that another person is being “passive-aggressive,” they really mean something else. Let’s clarify just what passive-aggression is — and what it isn’t — with the help of a framework for understanding human aggression in general.

Neurotics have a big sense of right and wrong, set high standards for themselves, and carry the proverbial world on their shoulders. In contrast, disordered characters have a remarkably impaired, immature, or underdeveloped conscience. In some cases, conscience can be absent altogether.

Is anger a finite substance that can be let out or kept in, which “goes off” if it is kept in, and feels good and constructive to let out? Is any kind of emotional energy like that?

I’m quite a sucker for “how to” posts about positive thinking. But sometimes the underlying tone seems more aggressive than positive. I don’t have a problem with being a winner in a genuinely competitive situation, but I don’t see my life as a war, either with myself or with the rest of the world!

According to an overview of thousands of psychology studies, men and women are psychologically very similar. So why are so many of us convinced that women are from Venus and men are from Mars?