Calm Down!

October 28, 2003 6:37 PM

NPR's "All Things Considered" had a great piece on the anger management industry today and it's increasingly ubiquitous presence in many strata of American society. This is the most well known anger management company in the biz, while programs like this promote less orthodox techniques of trumping stressors.

Had any network rage lately?
posted by moonbird (6 comments total)

Remember Bad Day??
posted by dhartung at 7:41 PM on October 28, 2003

Perhaps when Metafilter membership is opened up to the public again, we should make completion of an anger management course a condition of joining?
posted by rushmc at 8:28 PM on October 28, 2003

the "anger gene" article is interesting, and I hereby suggest that we adopt the phrase "reptilian brain response" immediately. (But what I really want to know is if this guy is really angry, or is there something else going on here?)

I suppose I'm not afflicted much with the anger gene, though I am rather horrifyingly terrible once the threshhold has been crossed.
posted by taz at 6:11 AM on October 29, 2003

MetaFilter: Cultivating the Reptilian Brain Response since 1999
posted by ZachsMind at 6:14 AM on October 29, 2003

When I was young and naive, I taught Anger Management courses along with other patronizing tripe like Steven Covey courses and leadership classes. (Please don't hate me.)

The anger management classes were FULL of misguided adult bullies who should have been fired years ago, but their managers were scared of them. Most attendees were never told why they were supposed to be there, and never received any kind of follow up or direct feedback. They just left the class with a little diploma and some lingo for their self-righteous cluelessness.(Similarly, if your manager ever asks you to go with a class on "How to Deal with Difficult People", they are indirectly trying to tell you that you are Difficult People in question. Find another job.)

Maybe managers should stop trying to control employee's anger and start trying to fix the problems that cause the anger.
posted by pomegranate at 7:08 AM on October 29, 2003

That DICK management book looks like something that needs mailed to the White House.
posted by nofundy at 7:44 AM on October 29, 2003