What better way to feed anger than a deep, soul-cleansing scream that echoes through the pits of our bones? Modern humans have developed some peculiar traditions, with suppression of emotion amongst the most curious. The zeitgeist of the modern epoch indoctrinates the illogical belief that not showing emotions is the pillar of strength. Painful emotions, despair, agony, heartbreak, jealousy, rage, all must course through the veins with nary a hint in one’s eyes or facial muscles. Grimace at the wrong time in the wrong meeting and risk walking the plank into the offices of unemployment. Never mind that emotions colour life. Without emotion existence would be as blunted as Calvin Broadus.  

 

When it comes to difficult emotions like anger, modern Western society teaches us to swallow it down, suck it up, carry on, smile and take it in stride. I recall someone once recounting to me his experience at a court-mandated anger management group. To start off the 12-month anger management course, the instructor informed all participants that everyone’s goal was to not get angry for the next year. Not only is not getting angry for a year likely impossible, it’s unhealthy.  

 

It is unnatural to never feel angry, and people who aim to not be angry usually repress their anger. Repressed emotions do not go away, they go somewhere, and that somewhere is our unconscious (or subcortical brain regions for those wary to stray outside medical parameters). Once nestled away conveniently outside of our awareness, repressed emotions squirt into our lives and wreak havoc. As Carl Jung reminded us, it’s not that what we don’t know won’t hurt us, it’s that what we don’t know controls us. In a world with scarce ‘safe spaces’ for anger other than rage rooms, most of us are left with plenty to be angry about and little in the way of healthy outlets; hence, the scream.

 

Who would’ve thought that the little metal boxes we all putt around in, making sure we’re showing up where we’re told, when we’re told, like good little children, would also double as soundboards for caged rage? The advent of car stereos brought musical expression into our daily commutes, and for those feeling a little boxed-in by society, joining in on the vocals of loud music with primal screams can catalyze inner cathartic movement as much as a wide-open carpool lane in heavy traffic facilitates external movement. While some are lucky enough to live in a home with enough space for an unbridled scream, for many, the alone time in a car provides one of the few places to truly let go.

 

Anger gets a bad rap in Western society. Like most things, anger has a light and shadow side. Thich Nhat Hanh encouraged us to notice anger and welcome it like a guest into our home. Curiously, inquire as to what brought anger to visit. A healthy relationship with anger can, and has, driven some of the most important developments in human history. Was Ghandi not angered by the circumstances around him? Jesus? Susan B. Anthony? Martin Luther King Jr.? Rosa Parks? Harvey Milk? Anger can be destructive or constructive, it is up to each of us to develop a healthy relationship with anger to motivate and inspire the change we want to see in the world.

 

The Buddhist philosophy that holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die notes the toxicity of anger repressed and unexpressed, or unfed as in Dickinson’s poetry. The American Psychological Association describes ‘primal scream therapy’ as discredited, so clearly cathartic release by screaming is not a helpful anger management system for all. However, for some, including many musicians, an inspired scream into a microphone in a recording studio is far more constructive than a similarly inspired scream in other life situations. Regardless of a lack of double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, the millions upon millions of albums sold and the entire genre of music referred to as ‘screamo’ form a sufficient evidence-base to show that many people find release in the primal scream. Edvard Munch’s timeless painting also suggests the enduring significance of the primal scream in nature and the human psyche.