Recently, a book called Shadow Syndromes by Dr. John Ratey, M.D. and Catherine Johnson, Ph.D., was recommended to me, and I started reading it last week.  It is FASCINATING.  I’m not sure how it’s stayed under my radar for so long — likely because I was up to my eyeballs in assigned reading for graduate school and work — but I am so glad I have found it now.  There is a great chapter in it called “Adults Who Tantrum,” and to begin, I will share an excerpt:

The hypofrontality of many rage disorders brings with it another fascinating and counterintuitive implication.  Poor frontal-lobe function means that there may be a biological reason why people hold on to their anger:  a person can become addicted to his rage.   Addictive behavior (like compulsive gambling, compulsive shopping, compulsive rage) makes the person acting that way feel better because it positively affects, at least for a time, specific states in the brain.

Anger may make a person feel better because it affects the brain at a purely biological level.  Anger may function in much the same way stimulants such as Ritalin and Dexedrine do; anger can bring sluggish areas in the brain up to speed.  While we will discuss this theory in detail in our chapter on attention deficit disorder, suffice it to say here that psychiatrists working at the National Institute of Mental Health have discovered that hyperactivity may come not from a brain working too fast, but from a brain working too slowly.

Psychiatrists have long known that there is a group of patients who respond well to stimulants.  These include people with ADD, but they also include people suffering with depression and other disorders.  The person who responds to stimulants may respond in exactly the same way to explosive rage.  Violent expressions of rage may actually make that person’s brain work better for a brief period.

Evidence for this hypothesis exists in the work of psychologist Michael Jacobson of UCLA.  In studying the physiology of emotionally and physically abusive husbands, Jacobson has discovered a subgroup, twelve out of his group of fifty-seven, who become not MORE aroused by a marital battle, as you would expect, but LESS aroused.  In the midst of a raging battle, their heart rates actually show a deceleration:  they are physically calmer during the fight than before or after.  Speaking of these men to a reporter, Jacobson’s comments are revealing:

The only other known state in which there is a deceleration in heart rate is focused attention.  These men look like they are being very attentive and focused.

Of course, this is exactly how a hyperactive person SHOULD look when being effectively medicated by Ritalin — or effectively self-medicated by rage.  (It is entirely possible that this subgroup might also respond positively to the emotion of fear, and for the same reason.  Like rage, high fear can be an organizing state when one or more parts of the brain are underaroused.  Fear brings the sluggish brain up to speed.  This may explain those cases of abusive or tantruming spouses who ARE able to control their outbursts when they are threatened by the serious and real prospect of losing their mate.)

Incredible.  Does anybody else see this as revolutionary?  Probably everyone who read this book 15 years ago when it was initially published.  I have not made the time (or exerted the energy) to research and see if all of these ideas have been slapped down by other people who wanted to get rich off a publishing deal since then, but they just make SO much sense to me.

What do you think?  Doubtlessly, you have been exposed to someone, either in your family or work environment, who seems to be a poster child for this theory.  Wouldn’t that be something?  If we could reduce the incidence of spousal abuse by conducting accurate psychological evaluations, determining if there is a biological problem with someone’s “attentional apparatus,” and then treating that accurately?  I mean, I’m just sayin’.

Very compelling.