The four As
What is the difference between anger, aggression, attacks and abuse? Anger is an emotion , the feel of an experience, a state of mind. It is neither good nor bad, but usually has negative effects on the person feeling it, and is associated with the colour red (love with pink, jealousy with green). It can be expressed safely to others using an I-statement: “I am angry that you said that”. As long as the separateness of another person is respected, as long as anger is expressed TO and not AT another person, anger can be shared without hurting someone else. Aggression is anger expressed AT another person. Aggression hurts others. Overt aggression is conveyed in ways that are usually obvious, whether verbally or physically, as jabs or punches. Covertly it is usually expressed by acts of omission, silence or other forms of passive aggression . Though aggression may hurt others, it is not necessarily aimed at or intended to hurt...