A psychodynamic contribution to the understanding of anger - The importance of diagnosis before treatment

This paper starts from the claim that a shared understanding of anger, in both its normal and psychopathological dimensions, is missing and that there are various therapeutic paths that seem to be less effective than those related to other pathologies. A major limitation of anger research and of its treatments lies in the lack of precise clinical diagnoses to inform therapy. For this reason, the first aim of our work is to survey critical literature in order to find useful elements to differentiate anger, starting from the evidence of negative and positive outcomes of treatments. Such evidence will then be enhanced in our proposal of interpretation and intervention, within a dynamic framework and with particular reference to Orefice’s thought. The core focus is to explore the different functions that anger has for the patient and to investigate the elementary functioning of the self. Our reading of the phenomena related to anger will provide useful tools both for understanding the dynamics underlying anger and as a guide for clinical intervention.