Rage, Power, and Aggression (The Role of Affect in Motivation, Development and Adaptation)

Book Overview

Rage, aggression and the will to power are significant human characteristics. This book probes these dimensions of human experience as they serve adaptive needs, assuage anxiety, protect against... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300052715
• ISBN13: 9780300052718
• Release Date: April 1993
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.0" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

A Study of Fundamental Emotions

Rage, aggresion, and the "will-to-power" are significant human characteristics that have been relatively neglected in psychoanalytical literature. In the past. rage has been viewed as a response to threat and frustration, aggresion as an instinctual drive, and the will-to-power as causing destructive and maladaptive behavior. In this volume, the authors probe these dimensions of human experience to show how they serve adaptive needs, assuage anxiety, protect against threat and foster maturation. Rage, aggresion and power are not necessarily destructive, say the authors. They are requisites to individual growth and development and to the maintenance of a viable structure. The authors address such topics as competition, frustration, fear, and violence as intrinsic features of communal life, both human and animal; the nature of hatred; women as victims in a male-dominated world; male sexuality and power; the development of rage and aggresion in early childhood; and the righteous wrath and fears of evil that characterize pagan, Hebrew, and Christian myths. The book offers valuable insights to clinicians and scholars alike. -- from book's dustjacket