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Background: This presentation explores our knowledge of clinical anger, how its presence influences a client's primary disorder, and how characteristics of anger impede the assessment process. This presentation discusses how treatment of the primary diagnosis is hampered by unresolved anger, and how to design treatment plans focusing on the comorbid anger.
This presentation will explore the characteristics of anger that are important in defining it as a clinical problem. These include its frequency, intensity, levels of arousal, the motives it arouses, and its behavioral expression. It will review how anger has been conceptualized as a problem from the ancient philosophers until the 21st Century, and how this history has lead to misunderstandings of anger as a clinical problem and its relationship to similar constructs such and irritability and aggression. A thorough discussion will be made of how is presented in DSM-IV and the disorders for which it is a possible symptom. Anger has long been seen as a secondary emotion to depression and anxiety, which has resulted in a less attention to its assessment and treatment. The role of anger as a basic human emotion will be presented and the implication of this for treatment will be explored. It cannot be assumed that treatment of a patents anxiety or depression will result in reductions in anger. The comorbidity of anger with anxiety, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, and personality disorders will be presented. Some characteristics of anger such as the externalization of blame make it difficult to assess and treat and the presence of this comorbidly has shown to reduce treatment effectiveness. Clinical strategies to circumvent the difficulties in assessing dysfunctional anger will be presented. The research on anger treatments will be reviewed with emphasis on the limitations of existing protocols. The most effective interventions will be discussed and difficulties in their implementation will be presented. Strategies will be presented to help prioritize the order to treatment the comorbid anger or the symptoms of eating disorders.
This presentation will explore the characteristics of anger that are important in defining it as a clinical problem. These include its frequency, intensity, levels of arousal, the motives it arouses, and its behavioral expression. It will review how anger has been conceptualized as a problem from the ancient philosophers until the 21st Century, and how this history has lead to misunderstandings of anger as a clinical problem and its relationship to similar constructs such and irritability and aggression. A thorough discussion will be made of how is presented in DSM-IV and the disorders for which it is a possible symptom. Anger has long been seen as a secondary emotion to depression and anxiety, which has resulted in less attention to its assessment and treatment. The role of anger as a basic human emotion will be presented and the implication of this for treatment will be explored. It cannot be assumed that treatment of a patient's anxiety or depression will result in reductions in anger. The comorbidity of anger with anxiety, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, and personality disorders will be presented. Some characteristics of anger such as the externalization of blame make it difficult to assess and treat and the presence of this comorbidly has shown to reduce treatment effectiveness. Clinical strategies to circumvent the difficulties in assessing dysfunctional anger will be presented. The research on anger treatments will be reviewed with emphasis on the limitations of existing protocols. The most effective interventions will be discussed and difficulties in their implementation will be presented. Strategies will be presented to help prioritize the order to treat the comorbid anger or the symptoms of eating disorders.
Ray received his BA in Psychology from Villanova University in 1971 and his PhD in Psychology from Hofstra University in 1975. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Albert Ellis. He is presently Professor and Chair of the Psychology Department at St. John’s University in New York City. He served as past president of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and is currently president –elect of the Division of Psychotherapy of the American Psychological Association. His research interests focus on the assessment and treatment of anger problems.
