Most Likely to Die by Lethal Injection: a fictional short-short story

If You Tend to Piss People Off

Work Complaints

A Word With Marty: "ANGER"

Managing Your Tendency to Blow Up

A Peacenik Who Shot Tires

11 Nuanced Words for "Anger:" Using language to convey the feeling you want to express.

If you’re going to express anger, it should reflect the nuance of your feeling. Sometimes, “angry” doesn’t quite do it.

My Psychology Today article today offers 11 more nuanced words for “angry.” See if one or more belongs in your verbal or written toolkit.

When You've Failed Too Often With People

My Psychology Today article today describes a composite person whose angry personality has hurt his professional and personal relationships. It goes on to ask questions that can help such people unearth  wise options. 

Calming an Angry Personality: Lessons from a success story.

An angry personality can hurt a person professionally and personally. I had always thought of an angry personality as difficult to change, requiring a personality transplant, lots of effort, long-term with no guarantee of success.

Yet I had a client who—no credit to me—went from being a man usually seething to quite calm. My Psychology Today article today tells his story and lessons that may be of value to us all.

Are You More or Less Angry Than You’d Like to Be? 12 questions to help you decide

Should you be angrier? Less angry? In general, or situationally?

Answering the 12 questions  in my Psychology Today article today may help you decide.

“I Wish I Hadn’t Said That:” Three steps to avoiding that

Most of us have said things we wish we could take back. But for some people, that's a frequent occurrence. My Psychology Today article today offers three steps have helped my clients.

The Case for Anger: Why calmness may not always be as wise as some gurus claim

 My PsychologyToday.com article yesterday made the case for being sad. My article today makes the case for anger.

Tips for Anger Management

Anger-prone people usually pay a big price professionally, personally, and in their health. 

My PsychologyToday.com article today aims to help. First, I offer common scenarios likely to trigger anger and how the anger-prone person might wisely respond. After, I list the embedded principles for dealing with anger-proneness. I conclude with a few tips on how to deal with an angry person.

Do You Look for Reasons to be Angry or Sad?

Some people tend to seek a reason to be happy, others to be angry, still others to be sad.

It’s easy to understand happiness seekers, but what could motivate people to want to be angry or sad?   

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers my hypothesis, the pros and cons of trying to change, and if you want to change, some baby steps that can help.

Tips for Sub-Clinical Sadness, Worry, Anger, ADD/ADHD

Many people have “issues” that don’t rise to the level of a disorder requiring professional help. For example:

• They’re sad by nature or because of external events but they’re not—as in clinical depression— numb or inert, let alone suicidal. They function, just not as happily as they’d like.
• They tend to worry more than they'd like but rarely panic, nor does their anxiety greatly impede their quality of life.
• They’re predisposed to anger but aren’t in an ongoing state of suppressed anger nor are subject to frequent outbursts let alone physical violence.
• They have trouble staying focused but their distractibility doesn’t rise to the level of clinical attention-deficit disorder; neither the spacey version (ADD), or the hyperactive version (ADHD.)

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers not-magic pills that have helped a number of my clients address their sub-clinical malaise. Of course, many of these tips are obvious, yet many of us can benefit from reminders to do even things we’ve successfully used before.

The Making of a Mass School Shooter: A short-short story

Why do most of the mass school shooters seem cut from a similar mold? In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I forward one hypothesis.

Ignored: A short-short story

As my PsychologyToday.com contribution today, I offer a short-short story about a spouse who reached the boiling point.

A Bomb: A short-short story about suppressed anger.

I offer a short-short story on suppressed anger as my PsychologyToday.com contribution today

Advice to a Lawyer With an Anger Problem

In each installment of my daily PsychologyToday.com series, I respond to a composite letter that asks for my career advice.

Today, I offer advice to a lawyer with an anger problem. 

A Workover: She's Complaining About Her Boss: Sometimes it's not the boss's fault

On my NPR-San Francisco radio program, I do Workovers: Callers call in with a career problem.

I've been posting edited transcripts of Workovers that might interest PsychologyToday readers. Here's today's offering.