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R. Douglas Fields - Why We Snap: Understanding the Rage Circuit in Your Brain

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R. Douglas Fields Why We Snap: Understanding the Rage Circuit in Your Brain
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The startling new science behind sudden acts of violence and the nine triggers this groundbreaking researcher has uncoveredWe all have a rage circuit we cant fully control once it is engaged as R. Douglas Fields, PhD, reveals in this essential book for our time. The daily headlines are filled with examples of otherwise rational people with no history of violence or mental illness suddenly snapping in a domestic dispute, an altercation with police, or road rage attack. We all wish to believe that we are in control of our actions, but the fact is, in certain circumstances we are not. The sad truth is that the right trigger in the right circumstance can unleash a fit of rage in almost anyone.But there is a twist: Essentially the same pathway in the brain that can result in a violent outburst can also enable us to act heroically and altruistically before our conscious brain knows what we are doing. Think of the stranger who dives into a frigid winter lake to save a drowning child.Dr. Fields is an internationally recognized neurobiologist and authority on the brain and the cellular mechanisms of memory. He has spent years trying to understand the biological basis of rage and anomalous violence, and he has concluded that our cultures understanding of the problem is based on an erroneous assumption: that rage attacks are the product of morally or mentally defective individuals, rather than a capacity that we all possess. Fields shows that violent behavior is the result of the clash between our evolutionary hardwiring and triggers in our contemporary world. Our personal space is more crowded than ever, we get less sleep, and we just arent as fit as our ancestors. We need to understand how the hardwiring works and how to recognize the nine triggers. With a totally new perspective, engaging narrative, and practical advice, Why We Snap uncovers the biological roots of the rage response and how we can protect ourselvesand others.Neuroscientist Fields provides insight into the seemingly inexplicable... highly readable... a thoughtful and essential light on one of the darkest aspects of human behaviour. -Publishers WeeklyNeurobiologist Fields offers a sensible, plainspoken guide to the all-too-common phenomenon of rage... [a] thoughtful and anecdotal examination... Fields timely exploration of sudden acts of violence is sure to inspire conversation. - BooklistThe interplay between conscious and unconscious cognition is not unfamiliar territory, as readers of Daniel Kahneman or Malcolm Gladwell will recognize, but Fields personal experience adds a fresh viewpoint to an intriguing subject. - Kirkus ReviewsA fusion of news, in-person interviews, and academic research, this book will appeal to readers of popular neuroscience and those seeking specific information on anger and rage. Library JournalThis book is a riveting journey into your brain s most mysterious, dangerous, and possibly redemptive territory. Douglas Fields guides us into the core of rage, and offers us a blueprint for understanding and perhaps remedying the explosions of violence that can mar our world and our lives. Dan Coyle, author of The Talent CodeDoug Fields explores the dark matter of the soul engrained in a the web of neurons in our brain. This is a superbly told investigation into the question of why we snap with urgent, useful implications for our personal lives as well as for the wider world. Everyone should know about the triggers of the rage circuit Doug Fields has defined. Daniela Schiller, PhD, Neuroscientist, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. SinaiA superb must-read for anyone hoping to understand the common neural roots of spontaneous acts of violence, rage, and, yes, heroism. The argument is both riveting and convincing; the implications are profound, from rethinking the relationship between violence and personal responsibility to possible ways to temper the snap response. --Robert Burton, M.D. author of On Being CertainR. Douglas Fields is senior investigator at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He became head of the Neurocytology and Physiology Unit in 1994 and chief of the Nervous System Development and Plasticity Section in 2001. He is editor-in-chief of Neuron Glia Biology and a member of the editorial board of several other journals in the field of neuroscience.

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Why We Snap Understanding the Rage Circuit in Your Brain - image 1

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An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

375 Hudson Street

New York, New York 10014

Why We Snap Understanding the Rage Circuit in Your Brain - image 3

Copyright 2015 by R. Douglas Fields

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

DUTTONEST. 1852 (Stylized) and DUTTON are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Names: Fields, Douglas.

Title: Why we snap : understanding the rage circuit in your brain / Douglas Fields.

Description: New York : Dutton, 2016. | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015016464 | ISBN 9780525954835 (hardback) | ISBN 9780698194311 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Anger. | Violence. | Neurosciences. | BISAC: SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Neuroscience. | MEDICAL / Research.

Classification: LCC RC569.5.A53 .F54 2016 | DDC 616.89/142dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015016464

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Version_1

For my family, Kelly, Morgan, Dylan, and Melanie

Contents
1 Snapping Violently Rage is a short madness Horace Book 1 Epistle ii line - photo 4
1

Snapping Violently

Rage is a short madness.

Horace, Book 1, Epistle ii, line 62

Y ou mustnt say things about Melanie, he warns her.

Who are you to tell me I mustnt? she snaps back, vibrating in anger. You led me on. You made me believe you wanted to marry me!

Now, Scarlett, be fair, he pleads, trying to calm her fury. I never at any time

You did! Its true! You did. She cuts him off. Ill hate you till I die! she screams. I cant think of anything bad enough to call you!

Sobbing in rage, she suddenly slaps her lover across his face. As he retreats she grasps a vase and hurls it across the room. The delicate porcelain shatters against the wall.

Later the jilted woman sobs desperately as the second man in her lovers triangle walks out on her: Oh, Rhett! Rhett, Rhett! Rhett... Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?

He faces her calmly and delivers these enduring words: Frankly, my dear, I dont give a damn.

Gone with the Wind, the 1939 film classic based on Margaret Mitchells novel, captures the paradoxical moment of snapping that is familiar to us all, but inexplicable. Why smash a treasured vase? Why slap a lover across the face? The immediate aftermath brings regret and shame, and upon reflection bewilderment. The explosive impulse of destruction is driven by a powerful righteous rage, overwhelming but pointless.

Who has not lost self-control in a blind rage, smashing a dishor worse? We all wish to believeneed to believethat we are in control of our behaviors and actions, but the fact is that in certain instances we are not. Something unexpected in our environment can unleash an automatic and complex program for violence, destruction, and even deathall of it an unconscious pre-established program.

Rage explodes without warning. Overpowering judgment, compassion, fear, and pain, the fiery emotion serves one purposeviolence, both in words and actions. While this human response has been vital to our survival since our species evolved, rage simultaneously puts ones life at risk. And it seems there is no escaping the rage circuit once it has been activated. So if rage is an automatic reflex, are you really in control of your fate? That flare-up with your partner or child or friend or even a complete stranger can change your life in an instant, forever.

Despite the essentially peaceful lives most of us lead most of the time, killing is programmed into the human brain. This is because, as with most animals, individuals in the natural world must be able to defend themselves and their offspring. Moreover, carnivores must kill other living creatures for food. These behaviors are hardwired in the brain, not in an area where consciousness resides but instead deep in the core of the brain where other powerful impulses and automatic life-sustaining behaviors (feeding, thirst, and sex) are programmed. Each of these behaviors, just like the complex rage behavior, is automatic once triggered. The question is, what triggers this deadly switch for violence and killing?

Late one summer night in a torrential downpour, my daughter and I threaded our way through the dark cobblestone back alleys of Paris, hungry and lost. Like most scientists, I travel the world to lecture and collaborate with other scientists, and I almost always travel alone. This night my seventeen-year-old daughter was with me. The springtime of proms, graduation ceremonies, and anxious anticipation of leaving high school behind had cleared a momentary opportunity for a father and daughter to share time together. It was wonderful seeing Kellys eyes open to the world. Soaking wet, we leaped over puddles and escaped into a steamy one-room restaurant. No one spoke English. Kelly applied her high school French to order from one of the three frantic middle-aged women who shared the burden of all the cooking and serving.

Suddenly in exasperation the woman jabbed at the menu, scolding Kelly. She had not ordered a glass of wine for herself. The idea that anyone would enjoy a fine dinner without the requisite glass of wine was unthinkable. For Kelly, underage for drinking alcohol in the United States, this was a revelation. Not everywhere in the world is necessarily the same as the place in which you were reared.

After Paris we traveled to Barcelona for my next lecture at an international meeting of neuroscientists. The morning before the meeting began we made a quick visit to the Gaudi cathedral. Ascending the steps out of the dingy subway station smelling of concrete dust and sweat, we emerged into the brilliant Barcelona sun. The crowd of passengers pressed upon us in a gray blur.

Suddenly I felt a sharp tug at my pant leg. As if swatting a mosquito I slapped the zippered pocket above my left knee. My wallet was gone!

My left arm shot back blindly. In a flash I clotheslined the robber as he pivoted to hand my wallet to his partner and flee down the steps. As if swinging a sledgehammer I hurled him by his neck over my left hip and slammed him belly first onto the pavement, where I flattened him to the ground and applied a head lock.

Splaying my legs for hip control like a wrestler pinning an opponent I yelled for help. Fifty-six years old, 130 pounds, with wire-rimmed glasses and graying hair, I have no martial-arts training, no military experience, no background in street fighting. Drawing on junior high school wrestling moves from forty years ago, I found myself applying an illegal choke hold. The street-smart hoodlum struggling in my arms was in his late twenties or early thirties.

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