Are you ready for a multidisciplinary deep-dive into anger?
Announcing the forthcoming Plato's Academy Centre virtual conference
I get pretty excited about all of the events we organize through our nonprofit, the Plato’s Academy Centre. Our new event, however, is one that is especially important to me. Anger is the main topic that I plan to focus on this year. Why? Well, the short answer is that when I ask myself what the most important thing is that I could do before I die, the answer is something to do with what I call “the problem of anger.”
This event is free of charge, everyone is welcome to attend, and recordings will be available if you register in advance.
Anger is everywhere. Many politicians thrive on it — it’s like oxygen to them. (Angry people are easy to manipulate.) Social media is awash with rage-farming and something about certain platforms, such as Twitter, often seems especially to fuel angry exchanges and extremely hostile language. The Stoics, and other ancient philosophers, saw our own anger is one of the biggest threats to humanity. I believe they were correct and yet, in a sense, it’s become one of the most neglected emotions in modern philosophy and psychotherapy.
Earlier this year I put together a small informal group of psychologists to discuss opportunities for doing important psychological research on Stoicism and anger. I thought there would be 3-4 of us but our little group rapidly grew to consist of twenty researchers and clinicians, from around the world. (We don’t even have a name for the group yet, I just call it “Anger Squad”.) So before we knew it the question arose: What next? The answer seemed obvious to me: organize a conference!
I have divided this event into three main sections: philosophy, therapy, and research. We have presentations from experts explaining the approaches to anger found in Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Plutarch, early Christianity, Greek myths and legends, and Aristotle. The intention is for the philosophers to communicate in plain English what the differences are between these approaches so that the audience and our therapists and researchers can take away practical insights, which might be worthy of future research!
We also have presentations from clinicians covering several major evidence-based approaches to cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), including Beck’s cognitive therapy, schema therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and also a successful CBT and Stoicism based training that’s been tested in UK prisons. We want the clinicians to highlight ideas that the audience can take away and use in their own lives but also areas of philosophical interest in relation to anger. We’re looking for ways in which ancient philosophy could complement modern evidence-based psychotherapy, and help us tackle the question of anger.
The researchers will then give an overview of some areas where we have important insights into the nature of anger. Followed by a multidisciplinary panel, with philosophers, clinicians, and researchers, discussing your questions and tackling some of the major questions that trouble us in relation to anger today. Why not join us? Everyone is welcome. This event will be of especial interest to therapists, philosophers and psychologists but absolutely everyone can benefit from learning more about the nature of anger and different perspectives on how to work with this powerful emotion.
Some questions
Here are some of the questions I would encourage you to think about in relation to the philosophy and psychology of anger…
What is the nature of anger? Are there qualitatively different types of anger, in the same way that we know there are different types of anxiety?
Do different types of anger respond to different forms of therapy and different self-help strategies?
What are the ingredients of anger? In particular, to what extent is our anger cognitive and shaped by angry thoughts and beliefs?
What are the predisposing factors that make someone vulnerable to problems with anger?
Are there healthy and unhealthy forms of anger or — like Buddhists and Stoics believe — is all anger unhealthy?
What exactly are the costs, or risks, associated with anger? What are the longer-term implications of anger, and what is its wider impact on different domains of our life?
What exactly are the benefits of anger and can they be achieved in better ways, without incurring the same costs?
Conventional CBT for anger is effective but could it potentially be improved?
Do Stoicism and other ancient philosophies potentially offer clues for ways in which modern therapists could help their clients to cope with anger?
This, like all our virtual conferences, is completely free of charge, although you’re welcome to donate an amount of your choosing to help us continue doing similar work in the future. Please share the link and encourage your friends to join us as well.