House of Anger

Cold-served survey results have a tendency to unveil the illusions that we cultivate in our perception. The yearly released Gallup Global Emotions Report has been reporting a prevalent presence of anger among the Maltese population. Despite a marginal improvement last year, we remain among the angriest populations in the Europe and find ourselves right at the top 40% in the world of angriest nations. 

Anger is an inherently human emotion; it is a response to a stimulus, and the best way we have come to understand it is as a response to when something or someone gets in the way of our desired outcomes, when things are not as they should be. To the surprise of many, Jesus himself was capable of anger, and he expressed it vividly and physically in the Temple, drawing out “legitimate” business being carried out on Temple grounds.

In Atlas of the Heart, Brené Brown has compared anger to the engine light of a car. The moment it turns on, it usually means we pull over as soon as possible to check what the issue is. Anger also carries a spectrum of intensity, ranging from mild irritations and annoyances, all the way up to fury and rage.

While we cannot morally evaluate anger, there are both healthy and unhealthy ways of dealing with it. Anybody can attest to how keeping it all in or chronically expressing anger is harmful for mind, spirit and body. William Blake phrases this eloquently in his poem A Poison Tree when he says that:

I was angry with my friend;

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe:

I told it not, my wrath did grow.

What to make of our high levels of anger as a population? As a secondary emotion, what is our anger masking? What are those external stimuli triggering a prevalent sense of anger and its closely related emotion of stress? Returning to the episode of Jesus angrily driving out all the merchants and exchequers from the Temple, it is worthy of note that both the evangelists seek to give an interpretation for that anger and indignation. By quoting scripture they tell us that behind the violent gesture was a profound desire in Jesus’ heart that all would rediscover what true worship really was.

The title of this article gets its name from an emerging phenomenon, an activity that gives people the opportunity (or perhaps the illusion?) of dealing with their anger. Participants are given the chance to vent their anger at objects, by freely destroying and trashing them into pieces. However, we know all too well from experience that as freeing as this might momentarily feel, no real transformative experience emerges from destroying a dozen plates or crashing a tv set.

Anger has the potential to become a catalyst for change if a dose of honesty and courage are put in the same crucible with it. Anger has the potential to bring much-needed change in a variety of areas. More gently, we can also discover that our anger is a mask for things we would rather keep hidden: grief, regret and shame. No matter the source, personally and collectively the numbers coming out from surveys and our everyday experience are an invitation to pull over and do some checks. Our sense of wellness and fulfilment are beckoning for it.

This article appeared on The Sunday Times of Malta edition of August 31, 2025. Found here.