RAGE
Jaak Panksepp in his encyclopedic “The Archeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins” discusses Seven Primary Affective (intense emotional) Systems:
1. SEEKING or expectancy
2. RAGE
3. FEAR
4. LUST
5. CARING
6. PANIC/GRIEF
7. PLAY
RAGE
Our primary-process RAGE system is purely neural, deep in the brain. It requires no learning; it is with us at birth. All of our fellow mammals apparently share this raw RAGE. Our primary-process capacity for RAGE needs no intentional object of hatred; it is pure feeling. It is built in to protect us.
It takes on intentionality in the tertiary or upper cognitive level of the brain in the form of anger. Anger is a secondary-process emotion, not a primary-level process. With our vast cognitive abilities, we incubate hatreds and schemes for revenge that if intense, poison our mind. We have less and less control of the primary-process RAGE the deeper it originates in the brain.
Most anger from RAGE remains a fantasy, but sometimes we carry through and more often than not, suffer the consequences. RAGE flares between couples and sometimes between children. RAGE may flare when we are frustrated by lack of water, food, sex, or through isolation, for example in prisons, or when abused children come to school hungry. It may flare up in jealousy. It may flare up when we are teased. Perhaps the biggest concern is endemic RAGE associated with developmental trauma or PTSD.
Ethics
We can’t very easily or ethically study RAGE in humans, so research is done with lab animals. Panksepp has been responsible for much of this research. Animals can be starved in the lab and they can be “teased” and frustrated with small morsels of food that keep them in a sustained SEEKING state. Deprived of food, water, and sex, their RAGE system activates and can be recorded and tracked with probes implanted in the brain. RAGE circuitry is hierarchically arranged; RAGE evoked from the deeper structures of the brain is harder to counter with upper tertiary cognitive processes.
RAGE vs PC
To understand the roots of human anger, we must study the primary-level RAGE processs in lab animals. But with all of the violence in the U.S., since the early 1990s brain research with this system has virtually disappeared from the neuroscientific scene. Panksepp says this is at least partially politically motivated. In the early 1990s a chief administrator at the National Institute of Mental Health said that inner-city ghettos were like jungles and that animal research could, therefore, help us understand the cultural problems of these ghettos. This was taken as racist and cast a shadow over neurobiological research on RAGE that endures to this day.
Equally stifling for the research is a concern with cruelty to animals. Studies of rage in animals often result in one laboratory animal viciously attacking another. Panksepp is well aware of this and shares concern for lab animals. But he is equally aware that the same RAGE system in mammals exists in human brains and if experiments are designed with a degree of care and sensitivity, they need to be carried on.
The more we understand about the neurobiology of such circuits, the more we will understand a critically important natural tool for living that can cause much chaos in family life and society at large. And perhaps we may also generate new ideas for medicines that would control such passions –– to help melt feelngs of rage that have become a psychiatrically significant problem. Jaak Panksepp
Attention Therapies
Cognitive control over RAGE is with Attention Therapy. Our focus of attention can be anywhere we like. We can use all our senses at once and combine information from them all. Or, we can shut out all of the other senses and focus on listening. Or we can focus on ruminations.
Not a quick fix, learning Attention Therapies is like learning new languages. It takes time to get fluent so you have access to the therapy at the time of need. Here are links to relevant blog posts: Attention Therapy Open Focus Ki Breathing Meditation Insight Meditation
Self-help books that help:
Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus
The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body
