see, anger is good

This proves it. See there, all my anger is just my way of staying healthy. If there's much truth to this then I've got at least 120 years in me. Some people eat smart, other people stay active, still others manage their stress well, I get mad. To each his own, right?

But wait, there's more--unfortunately. It's not quite the license to ignore my anger management problem so I'm not out of the woods here yet. The opening statement includes the disclaimer "as long as you keep it below a boil." Darn, that removes me from the pool. And if that's not enough, we later find that "chronic, explosive anger or a hostile outlook on the world is still bad for you." What, me? Explosive anger? Hostile attitude toward just about everything? Nah, never. So it seems this article is talking to those who actually have some control over their temper. Oh well, next...

There are some other interesting bits in there though. The way they did the research is pretty cool. It does, however, lead one to wonder how many poor grad students got the crap beat out of them during these tests. I mean, we know a few of those people must have snapped. I'd have probably been one of the ones who started with disgust then moved into the anger category and finally lost it so badly that my data would have been thrown out for being outside the bounds of previously observed human behavior.

And how about this for telling us what we already know:

So in maddening situations in which anger or indignation are justified, anger is not a bad idea, the thinking goes. In fact, it's adaptive, Lerner says, and it's a healthier response than fear.

Well, ya think? Fear is a negative emotion, period. And righteous anger is good; even the Bible says so. These academics treat that comparison as if the answer is somehow not known. Guess they got thumped on the head a few too many times by some of their subjects.

Finally, in closing we have "Paul Ekman is the master of observing emotions on people's faces. He has even identified rare, super-sensitive people who are expert face readers and can accurately tell when people are lying." Now that would be one crazy cool ability to have. Unlike most of my dream abilities it actually exists...I wonder if one can gain it through practice. I need to meet this guy...