Cultures of Rage and Revenge

It is often said today that we live in the “Age of Rage.” This article explores
the phenomenon of modern rage through an analysis of the psychic conflicts
of Dostoevsky’s “underground man,” as he tries to reconcile the newly
imported values of modernity with his own needs and desires. By interpreting
rage through the classic Greek notion of the daimonic, the author examines
how the modern attempt to rationally control and suppress rage actually
exacerbates the underground man’s destructive, cruel, and self-defeating
behavior and cuts him off from the possibility of emotional connectivity
and wholeness. He concludes by pointing to some therapeutic possibilities
within the tradition of existential psychotherapy that might have allowed the
underground man to better understand and heal himself by recognizing the
daimonic roots of his own rage.

My MA Thesis charts Homer’s Iliad as a song of thumoresistance. I mean the very intersection of thumos and stasis. Thumos means heart, spirit, rage, bravery and is understood to be the courageous part of the Ancient Greek psyche. Stasis implies civil strife—a radical rupture with the organization of political power—an event which needs to occur for structural changes to manifest. Stasis, as contestation and conflict is politics as such. I have deeper interests in producing a strong, albeit polemic, argument that affirms and extenuates Ancient forms of rage, dissent and courageous action.
It is in the points of resonance between Menis, Thumos and Stasis, that I locate brave, courageous and enraged modes that engage and produce political crises. I am examining liberatory, revolutionary acts of thumotic resistance/stasis (individual/heroic and collective rage), as essential parts of Ancient Greek life. Affirming menis, thumos and stasis, as I feel the need to do, will strengthen critique Plato for being anti-democratic, anti-collective decision-making, against the capacity for courageous and spited action, and against political rage and politics as such. The object of my analysis is Homer’s Iliad, the tradition of militant rage that persists in the Bronze Age that was carried though in song well throughout 4th Century Democratic Athens. Over the course of this paper I will come to see Achilles not only as a flat warrior-model, but as a thumo-resisting hero who creates a legitimate and ethical stasis against the rule of the tyrant Agamemnon, and also a parrhesiastes. In addressing the dense network of themes I just described, I will be making close readings of the Ancient Greeks, including Homer, Solon, Plato, Aristotle and their interpreters: Peter Sloterdijk, Kostas Kalimtzis, Gregory Nagy, Michel Foucault, Leonard Muellner, DL Cairns and Glen Most.

Are retributive emotions always reprehensible? Don't feelings like anger, rage, and the demand for compensation and justice also need to be given their space and meaning in processes of moral repair and reconciliation? And what can literature and the arts bring to the discourse on vengeance and ‘bad’ emotions? We will discuss questions like these at our conference "Let's Talk About Revenge! Retributive Emotions, Justice, and Moral Repair" in July 2022 at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI)

What was the real story behind Buondelmonte de’ Buondelmonti’s condemnation, attributed to Cacciaguida in Paradiso, xvi, 136–147? The major Florentine chronicles of Dante’s era (Compagni) and thenceforth (Villani, Stefani) paint a picture of an innocent Buondelmonte, barbarously assassinated thanks to the homicidal rage of his peers – the magnates. However, the harsh treatment of Buondelmonte in the Commedia is the result of the character Cacciaguida (and therefore Dante) adhering to the noble/magnate ethos found in many contemporary sources (for example the chronicle by the pseudo-Brunetto Latini). Indeed, only at a later date would the Popolo’s ethos, expressed in the works of Compagni, Villani and Stefani, become the ‘definitive’ version.

In general, the legal rights of women in Asia are ignored. The paper provides anecdotal evidence of “young, beautiful” women in several Asian countries who have been the targets of acid attacks by angry men and women over personal issues. Battery acid is the weapon of choice. The acid attacks intentionally transform these women from “beautiful” to “ugly.” Most of the victims are alone and poor, and youth and beauty may be their only assets. The courts of law, however, blame the victims’ beauty and wile for initiating the circumstances that result in their suffering. The attackers generally go free. The story of Miss Som Rasmey of Cambodia is introduced as one example. The discussion digresses from the brutal particulars of the acid attacks to a naive question: “Why is there so much battery acid around, anyway?” This question leads to the conclusion that the attack on Miss Som Rasmey is collateral damage linked to the global conspiracy of economic growth (globalization). Economic gro...

Anger is a major issue in mental health and requires focused attention to address and distinguish healthy and unhealthy anger. Anger gets sick when other people complain about it or when anger becomes an obstacle to social and occupational life. Anger becomes destructive when it involves behaviours in the list here.

The essay deals with the strong conflicts which characterized the aristocratic Italian society at the end of XVI century. Feuds, blood feuds and banditry were the most visible aspects of a period which was hallmarked by a considerable enforcement of state authorities.

ABSTRACT

In general, the legal rights of womenin Asia are ignored. The paper provides anecdotal evidence of “young, beautiful” women in several Asian countries who have been the targets of acid attacks by angry men and women over personal issues. Battery acid is the weapon of choice. The acid attacks intentionally transform these women from “beautiful” to “ugly.” Most of the victims are alone and poor, and youth and beauty may be their only assets. The courts of law, however, blame the victims’ beauty and wile for initiating the circumstances that result in their suffering. The attackers generally go free. The story of Miss Som Rasmey of Cambodia is introduced as one example. The discussion digresses from the brutal particulars of the acid attacks to a naive question: “Why is there so much battery acid around, anyway?” This question leads to the conclusion that the attack on Miss Som Rasmey is collateral damage linked to the global conspiracy of economic growth (globalization). Economic growth ideology continues to spread the insidious mantra that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” This is an article of faith in market fundamentalism that promotes the spread of Walt Rostow’s capitalist manifesto (Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto,1960) around the world. In spite of massive anecdotal evidence of the negative impact of Rostow’s “stages of economic growth” at the local level in so-called “developing countries,” it is an economic planning model that growth ideologues continue to embrace as its influence expands.

KEY WORDS:
women, social justice, industrial development, Asia

“‘To give an account of a belief in a society, . . . you have to give an account of an individual person in the society’.”—Richard Shweder, Cultural Psychologist