A Danger in Venting Your Anger

We often speak of unexpressed anger with metaphors of explosive pressure. We are like “a ticking time bomb” or “a volcano.” We are “bottling it up.” And sometimes letting it out feels good—cathartic. There was even a popular anger-management therapy called “ventilationism” in which patients were encouraged to “let it out” by screaming or hitting something. On this “hydraulic” metaphor, letting out the anger reduced the “pressure,” reducing the risk that you might “explode” in a way destructive to others, your relationships, or yourself.

There is a problem with ventilationism though.…