We all have a certain amount of aggression within us. If we didn’t, we would not succeed as a species or as individuals. Man’s aggression has led him to master the other animal species, and has to a large extent enabled him to control his immediate environment. However, the way in which man has progressed toward civilization has of itself imposed great restriction on his native aggression.
He no longer has the opportunity to vent open aggression on animals that threaten him, or on a neighbouring tribe who would take his food or his woman, nor can he turn his aggression on weaker members of his own kin and take what they have for himself. In our present evolutionary state man is struggling to control the aggressive impulses that are still within him. This struggle with our own aggression is one of the greatest causes of tension. In many ways it is even more difficult to cope with than sexual problems, because while we usually have some awareness of our sexual difficulties, the struggle to control our aggressions may make us tense without us having any knowledge as to the cause of the tension.
A man of middle age came to see me for a skin rash which he had had on and off in front of his elbows and behind his knees for almost twenty years. He had had a lot of illness as a child which had left him undersized and with a bent back.
From the beginning he took charge of the interview. He was aggressive in his attitude, and rather contemptuous in his references to all the past failures of medical treatment. He mentioned that his family called him aggressive. He said that he loses his temper and blows up with his children, and then feels sorry for it. He added that he often drank heavily from sheer impatience and boredom. His wife disclosed that he really terrorized people—not only herself and the children, but other members of the family, and his friends at his place of work. The condition of his skin would wax and wane according to his state of frustration.
His aggression resulted from an inferiority complex, a reaction to compensate for his small size and weakly appearance. The anxiety engendered by his efforts to control his aggression had caused the skin condition.
Because he was so tense and aggressive it took him some time to learn how to relax, but when he did, his skin cleared up. A report from his wife indicated that those around him had come to have a happier time.
A man of middle age came to see me for a skin rash which he had had on and off in front of his elbows and behind his knees for almost twenty years. He had had a lot of illness as a child which had left him undersized and with a bent back.
From the beginning he took charge of the interview. He was aggressive in his attitude, and rather contemptuous in his references to all the past failures of medical treatment. He mentioned that his family called him aggressive. He said that he loses his temper and blows up with his children, and then feels sorry for it. He added that he often drank heavily from sheer impatience and boredom. His wife disclosed that he really terrorized people—not only herself and the children, but other members of the family, and his friends at his place of work. The condition of his skin would wax and wane according to his state of frustration.
His aggression resulted from an inferiority complex, a reaction to compensate for his small size and weakly appearance. The anxiety engendered by his efforts to control his aggression had caused the skin condition.
Because he was so tense and aggressive it took him some time to learn how to relax, but when he did, his skin cleared up. A report from his wife indicated that those around him had come to have a happier time.
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