Sue Parker Hall - Anger, Rage and Relationship: An Empathic Approach to Anger Management

Cover

Page i

Anger, Rage and Relationship

Anger, Rage and Relationship presents a radically new way to understand and work with anger and rage issues. Taking a relational approach to anger and rage, the book presents a positive view of human nature, supported by recent research findings and illustrated with case studies, with individuals trusted to be essentially pro-social.

Rather than promoting strategies and techniques for eradicating anger, Sue Parker Hall puts forward an approach which seeks to not only work with, but to differentiate between, anger and rage. Anger and rage are constructed as entirely different phenomena, originating at different developmental stages, having different functions and relational needs and requiring different aspects of relationship in the therapeutic process.

Further areas of discussion include:

the positive aspects of anger

practitioner protection

the therapeutic implications of working with both anger and rage

This book will provide invaluable reading for practitioners dealing with anger and rage in the therapeutic setting, as well as being of great interest to all counsellors and therapists in the related field.

Sue Parker Hall is a BACP accredited therapist and a supervisor in private practice, a freelance trainer and an HE lecturer. She has developed her relational approach to anger and rage over the last decade and has presented her models to a wide range of helping professionals.

Page ii

This page intentionally left blank.

Page iii

An Empathic Approach to Anger Management

Sue Parker Hall

LONDON AND NEW YORK

Page iv

First published 2009
by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an Informa business

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

2009 Sue Parker Hall

Paperback cover design by Andy Ward

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.

This publication has been produced with paper manufactured
to strict environmental standards and with pulp derived from
sustainable forests.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Parker Hall, Sue.
Anger, rage, and relationship: an empathic approach to anger
management / Sue Parker Hall.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Anger. I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Affective Symptomstherapy. 2. Anger.
3. Psychotherapymethods. 4. Rage. WM 171 H179a 2008]
RC569.5.A53P37 2008
616.89142dc22
2008011598

ISBN 0-203-87191-X Master e-book ISBN

ISBN: 978-0-415-41347-3 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-415-41348-0 (pbk)

Page v

Anger and rage are typically presented as problems by the person concerned and those in close relationship with them. This book offers a deeper and more positive analysis of anger and rage and their therapeutic potential. Essential reading for anyone working with these primary feelings.

Professor Tim Bond, University of Bristol.

This is a powerful and timely work that enhances and extends the field of anger management considerably. Reading it has given me many points of reflection and its richness and clarity have already helped me personally as well as professionally in the role of therapist. An inspiring read.

Jim Holloway, Independent Counsellor and Psychotherapist

This is an important book. The author is to be commended for the breadth of its scope, as well as the depth and rigour of her analysis. The distinction she draws between anger and rage is both important and useful. She critiques existing models and approaches to working with anger and violence, and promotes a practice and a process of empathic anger management which acknowledges the human organisms capacity for life and for processing our experience of life. The author also emphasises the importance of positive aspects of anger and adult rage, for example, in responding to social injustice. The book stands in the tradition of social psychology, and is clear about the social context of anger and rage which, the author argues, is endemic in British and American culture. I highly recommend it.

Keith Tudor, Psychotherapist, Director of Temenos, Sheffield,
Honorary Lecturer, Liverpool John Moores University

Page vi

To my Mum and Dad, Beryl and Jim, who always did their best; daughters, Libby, Harriet and Nellie and husband, Richard

Page vii