Faith has come up with a handy acronym, A-H-E-N, that she uses with her patients to help them understand the kinds of things that tend to piss people off. The idea is it comes from one, two, or three of the following variables: H-hert, E-expectations not met or N needs not met. It's a really good and simple tool for parsing out what's the underlying emotion. But that helps us figure out our patterns of responses. And Homer definitely recognized this feature of our emotional psychology.
Achilles has anger issues. The great Greek warrior sits out most of the Trojan War because he's angrily sulking. When he finally enters battle, he does so in a fit of rage that causes him to commit atrocities and bring dishonor on himself.
So what can we learn from this angry character in Homer's epic poem, The Iliad? With the help of Harvard classics expert Greg Nagy and anger counsellor Dr Faith Harper, we look at how anger can creep up on us and what we can do to defuse this sometimes explosive emotion.
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