Anger, Madness and the Daimonic: The Paradoxical Power of Rage in Violence, Evil and Creativity

By: Dr. Stephen Diamond

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

We are in the midst of a runaway rage epidemic. Hateful mass shootings at schools, shopping malls, sporting events and places of business are rapidly escalating in America and around the globe in recent decades. Why? Though the causes of violence in our culture are complex, the troublesome human emotions of anger and rage play a central role in the genesis of evil, violent behavior and psychopathology in general. In this newly revised electronic edition of his provocative and critically acclaimed 1996 book, clinical and forensic psychologist Stephen A. Diamond determines where rage and anger originate and explores whether these powerful passions are, as most people presume, purely pathological, negative and destructive or can be meaningfully redeemed and consciously redirected into constructive activity. Employing concrete examples of the malicious, vicious and terrifying explosions of violence tearing society apart today, clinical and biographical case studies, as well as striking visual images, Dr. Diamond traces anger, rage and violence through their most terrible, evil and destructive expressions to their creative and transcendent functions in art, psychotherapy and spirituality, illuminating and revealing the paradoxical power of rage. He provides a penetrating existential and depth psychological analysis of the perplexing and pervasive problem of anger today, explains how even trained mental health professionals tend to misunderstand and mismanage it, and offers an alternative approach to dealing more constructively and productively with the ubiquitous phenomenon of rage in contemporary existence, psychotherapy and society.