Darth Vader’s Fury ? Luke Skywalker trying to muster up his Determination borne from a Concern for his friends, but trying to do it without going down the Dark Path that threatens to forever Dominate his destiny? Is it about Calmness? Patience? Cheerfulness? Inner Peace? Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Serenity vs. Maybe the opposite Anger is not Love, but Contentment? Or Acceptance? Possibly, but hard to accept at face value… we writer-types are just never satisfied. praótēs) - describe the opposite of Anger as Apathy. As my teacher Canice McGarry likes to say, “Love me or hate me, but please don’t ignore me.” Others, perhaps those who have lived long enough to experience a love-hate relationship - or those who have read Aristotle (cf. Some people say the opposite of Anger is Love… that’s the quick (and too-easy) answer. Ask Jeeves, or Google, or Bing, or whoever else is serving as your extended central nervous system. Read on if you want to understand how this works.Īsk yourself - what is the opposite of this thing we call Anger? Ask a friend. If you think that’s a cop-out, if you say, “oh please… I’m just looking for a powerful performance-enhancing emotion like Anger but one that doesn’t carry the same nasty side effects,” well, then okay… just for you: The opposite of Anger is Gratitude and Eagerness. My short answer is that Anger doesn’t have a simple “opposite.” Emotions don’t work that way. This is going to be a long-ish post, so I’ll put the bottom line on top: SUMMARY (*Boxers often use anger to win their fights, which is part of the reason why their careers are so short.) So I decided to explore the positive side of the equation, the opposite of anger, which is… wait… what is the opposite of anger?Ī simple question - what is the opposite of anger - yields so many different answers, depending on who you ask.ĭozens of links, articles, research papers and even (gasp!) even a book or two later, I’ve come for a better appreciation on the limits of our understanding of emotions, the affective domain and how the language we speak shapes (and limits) almost everything (we think) we know about our minds. Last week’s post reflected on the pitfalls of using anger as a kind of performance-enhancing drug, especially for those of us who don’t work as professional boxers*.

What is the opposite of angry