The Brain On Anger

brain I borrowed this image on the brain from a post on imagination as an internal sense in the brain on copiosa.org.

We have all experienced anger.  We know what it is, and we know how we are when we are angry.   We have seen a lot of it among the public concerned about particular issues.  We have seen it in presidential candidates.   The blog post below suggests that we need to take a time out of perhaps 20 minutes before we engage activity that is consequential to ourselves or others.

As a hospital staff worker, one of the trainings we had to undergo was on how to de-escalate tensions when somebody threatens violence, perhaps in a hospital emergency room.  We were told that this is one of the most dangerous places in the hospital, and that to reduce tensions one should always face the person, and keep one’s hands in front of one, palms up.

What happens in the brain when we become angry?  Gerry Vassar, in 2011, explained that all senses feed into the amygdala which decides whether to send the information to the thinking part of the brain, the cortex, or to the reactive part of the brain, the limbic system.

The post on Maya Angelou’s book “Why the Caged Bird Sings“, describes an angry person, who recovered from his anger, and went on to make smart decisions about his life.   A person constantly motivated by anger would most pose a risk to our nation, should he become president.

Maya Angelou: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings   dwn Aug 15, 2015 519putcu+lL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_  This image from Amazon is the cover of this book by Maya Angelou.  It is a very vivid memoir of her childhood, detailed in its sensory descriptions.

Here is an example of her writing, where she is describing her angry brother leaving her mother and her at about age of sixteen.  The following is a set of quotes by her brother, and her thoughts in the situation, a good illustration of what I think of as mind points in motion.  ( As I imagine, in keeping with the synapses firing at the moment.)

“She wants me out, does she?  Well, I’ll get out of here so fast I’ll leave the air on fire.  She calls herself a mother? Huh!  I’ll be damned.  She’s seen the last of me.  I can make it.  I’ll always make it.”

At some point he noticed me still in the doorway, and his consciousness stretched to remember our relationship.

“Maya, if you want to leave now, come on.  I’ll take care of you.”

He didn’t wait for an answer, but as quickly went back to speaking to his soul.

I love this description of (a young) person,  reach out and grab his relationship with his sister, (then about age 14).  Then the young man’s consciousness included and invited her, and went back to its internal reflections, “speaking to his soul”.

As this issue resolved, the young man’s mind points aligned, and he went confidently off to become a porter on a train.

 

 

Fareed Zacharia’s Open Letter to Senator Schumer

Iran_(orthographic_projection).svg This map of Iran shows the global position of Iran, (attribution below).

Fareed Zacharia’s letter tells why he is not convinced by Chuck Schumer’s (Senator, NY) position against the Iran Deal.  Fareed Zacharia “respectfully urges” Senator  Schumer, “to reconsider” his recent “decision to vote against the nuclear agreement with Iran”.  Fareed Zacharia’s letter is very thoughtful, and very concise.  Please follow its link!

This map of Iran was made by “Iran (orthographic projection)” by P30Carl – Own work,This vector image was created with Inkscape.Aquarius.geomar.deThe map has been created with the Generic Mapping Tools: http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/ using one or more of these public domain datasets for the relief:ETOPO2 (topography/bathymetry): http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/global.htmlGLOBE (topography): http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/topo/gltiles.htmlSRTM (topography): http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/English | italiano | македонски | 日本語 | +/−Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iran_(orthographic_projection).svg#/media/File:Iran_(orthographic_projection).svg