Populism and the Yearnings of the Troubled

Poorly managed rage is a staple of presentations to mental health practitioners. Whether that rage is internally or externally directed, the regulation of anger is at the heart of much psychological distress, particularly in Anglo-Saxon culture, where rage is expected to be suppressed.

Drug and alcohol problems are often ways of coping for people who are unable to tolerate frustration. Self-harm occurs most commonly among those who believe their rage must be internalised, that it is not acceptable to communicate it outwardly. Patients inevitably speak of a sense of relief, a release of a steady crescendo of frustration, after they engage in cutting, for example. Even eating disorders usually occur in people who present in a formal, business-like manner indicative of their obsessive traits, but the exterior masks a primal, psychic screaming.

The British psychoanalyst Adam Phillips writes of the importance of interpreting rage in the therapeutic setting: “Tell me what makes you…