> I overlooked only one thing: I have absolutely no sense of direction. > After running for an hour, I noticed that Boston was not where I thought > it was. After two hours, I was jogging past eerie, deserted factories. > After three hours, my world was empty country roads in a pitch-dark > blizzard. > > Peter Levine would have been proud of the way I eventually freaked out, > stomping, kicking, and, yes, using strong language. My tantrum freed me > to release my expectations of knocking this off in a few hours and > accept that I was well and truly lost. This allowed me to narrow my > focus to the immediate situation, and I immediately formulated a plan: > Retrace my route by following my own footprints.
And then there are the studies that find venting increases anger and aggression rather than dousing it! :) http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/6/724 Does Venting Anger Feed or Extinguish the Flame? Catharsis, Rumination, Distraction, Anger, and Aggressive Responding Brad J. Bushman Iowa State University, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Does distraction or rumination work better to diffuse anger? Catharsis theory predicts that rumination works best, but empirical evidence is lacking. In this study, angered participants hit a punching bag and thought about the person who had angered them (rumination group) or thought about becoming physically fit (distraction group). After hitting the punching bag, they reported how angry they felt. Next, they were given the chance to administer loud blasts of noise to the person who had angered them. There also was a no punching bag control group. People in the rumination group felt angrier than did people in the distraction or control groups. People in the rumination group were also most aggressive, followed respectively by people in the distraction and control groups. Rumination increased rather than decreased anger and aggression. Doing nothing at all was more effective than venting anger. These results directly contradict catharsis theory. -- Also: http://www.physorg.com/news91899145.html In study after study, subjects who vented anger against inanimate objects, who vented directly against the person who induced their anger, who vented hostility by playing football or who vented verbally about an employer - all showed more resentment than those who had not vented. In some experiments, venting led to aggression against innocent bystanders. Even those who firmly believed in the value of venting ended up more hostile and aggressive after thumping pillows or engaging in other expressions of anger. "What people fail to realize is that the anger would have dissipated had they not vented. Moreover, it would have dissipated more quickly had they not vented and tried to control their anger instead," the researchers wrote. -- Peter Levine, by the way, is apparently the originator of something called "Somatic Experiencing" which claims that trauma is due to <quote>un-discharged "survival energy" (that) remains "stuck" in the body and the nervous system.</quote>[1] Sounds slightly new-age to me! Venky. [1] http://www.traumahealing.com/intro.html
