Listen to Me I’m Angry

By Deidre S. Laiken and Alan J. Schneider. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. Inc, 1980, 120 pages.

Reviewed by: Eva M. Costlow, B.S., Loyola College, Baltimore, MD

Anger is a human emotion that encompasses different degrees of intensity. It can be defined as any feeling from a minor annoyance to a violent rage. It is important to recognize these feelings in order to better understand them and ultimately be able to control them. Dealing with issues of anger can be especially difficult for teenagers. At this time of transition, many teenagers may not understand the vast range of emotions that they are experiencing. When anger is uncontrolled it can become detrimental to different relationships, health and overall well-being. Alan Schneider and Deidre Laiken have created a book geared towards teenagers, but applicable to adults, that will help to understand feelings of anger and their origins. Listen to Me I’m Angry (1980) addresses several facets of anger that will enable a better understanding of this volatile emotion.

The style of this book is such that most teenagers and adults would be able to understand and benefit from the material. Although the authors suggest that the subject matter is also helpful to adults, the content of the book uses real life situations that a teenager may encounter. Listen to Me, I’m Angry is written at an elementary reading level. This type of book would not be well-suited for younger children or adults who have been prone to violent anger for a great length of time. These feelings of anger, when experienced in great intensity or duration, can produce various other concerns. Instead, the book introduces the concept of anger and its related components (frustration, confusion, fear, etc.) in order to clarify these feelings to someone who has begun experiencing these varied emotions. Each chapter is approximately ten pages long and contains examples of situations where anger may be experienced with friends, at school, and with the family. Listen to Me I’m Angry focuses on the concept and understanding of anger as an emotion, and also on ways that one may convey it constructively.

Listen to Me I’m Angry would be an appropriate bibliotherapy resource to use with a teenager who has been experiencing anger. The text offers various scenarios where one may become angry and react in a negative way. The authors examine feelings of anger and explain how some people might express their feelings. By examining the different alternatives and understanding the reasoning behind the feelings that are experienced, one can have a greater knowledge of a normal human emotion and become more familiar with the way that each individual can control it. The short chapters are further divided into situations where a fictional character may be presented with feelings of anger. The client and psychotherapist may be able to read the situations and, depending on the situation, devise alternatives or explain why there are feelings of anger involved.

Anger is a complex emotion because of all the associated feelings that may accompany it. The book is divided into several short chapters. It first discusses the meaning of being angry and introduces hypothetical situations that may cause a person to become angry. There is an emphasis on recognizing and accepting angry feelings because they are normal and everyone experiences some type of anger. "Red Hot and Ready to Fight", "The Anger You Didn’t Know You Had" and "Angry Fantasies" are several chapter titles that express different types of anger and situations in which anger occurs. By presenting these types of situations, the authors are able to establish that anger is a multi-faceted emotion. It can occur at any given time with various people. The end of the book addresses issues such as being the receiver of an angry emotion and how to deal with someone else who is angry. The book also provides an explanation of the role of psychotherapy in treating anger control problems. The last chapter is entitled Accepting Yourself and it stresses the importance of liking oneself. This can be achieved by recognizing and understanding the emotions that are experienced.

This book spans a wide area of information concerning anger. However, it does not detail the various dimensions of this complicated emotion. The contents of this book allow discussion and elaboration on the part of the psychotherapist. The dialogue sections and the hypothetical situations in the book would be ideal for a client and a psychotherapist to discuss. The client may be assigned “homework” where more effective reactions to the anger situations can be introduced. By having a source that introduces these ideas, a client will be able to discuss and gain a better understanding of the different issues that are presented. Listen to Me I’m Angry includes cartoon illustrations that may make the information easier for younger teenagers to understand. They exemplify feelings that one may have such as “losing your cool” and “feeling like you’re going to explode.” The text, interspersed with these pictures, allows a greater overall understanding and is more likely to stand out in one’s mind.

Listen to Me I’m Angry employs a very straightforward approach in explaining anger and suggesting different methods to manage it. By using examples that a teenager would easily understand, Laiken and Schneider provide an informative approach to finding out the various drives behind feelings of anger. Incorporating this text into psychotherapy would allow the client and psychotherapist to discuss anger as an emotion, which may segue into discovering further reasons for this feeling. This book would benefit those who may be experiencing anger as a new or confusing emotion. The material is presented in a direct and understanding manner while leaving room for discussion and explanation between a client and therapist.