Detestation, Anger And Hostile Aggression

---

The Remedial Process Towards Unwinding The Strands Of Hate - Part II (Detestation, anger and hostile aggression are the components of hate)

---

Psychology explains hate as a hostile emotion, which is a combination of intense detestation, anger and in some cases, hostile aggression-which is the drive to inflict injury or damage.

What is detestation?

Detestation is basically loathing, utter disgust, strong dislike or immense disdain for someone, something, or a place. When we encounter any experience, irrespective of the intended message, if our registered impression is that of prejudice, chasm, disparity, or indignity, we initiate a positioning of “us against them”, a sense of dissension is triggered and at that moment, detestation is cultivated in us.

For example, Tim a native of Mango Town may hear his parents disparage people of Papaya Town as “encroaching bottom feeders” trying to relocate to Mango Town to access job opportunities. This message may register in Tim an impression of disgust, prejudice and chasm which incites him to dissent and loathe people from Papaya Town. At this point, detestation towards natives of Papaya is cultivated in Tim.

What is anger?

As the APA dictionary explains, Anger is that “emotion characterised by tension and hostility” which is cultivated through a feeling of frustration, injustice, or injury either real or imagined, and manifested through expressions of emotional outburst such as screaming, yelling, and punching walls, or behaviours that seek to eliminate “the object of the anger”.

So, when our experiences register impressions of defiance, abuse, violation, or infringement from actions of others or situations, we become frustrated, perceive injustice, or sustain injury either real or imagined. We therefore manifest behaviours purposed to express our feelings or eliminate the object of our frustration, injury, or perceived injustice. This is how anger is cultivated.

hate is the combination of intense detestation, anger and in some cases, hostile aggression-which is the drive to inflict injury or damage.

Using our illustration earlier on, let’s say natives from Papaya town move into the neighbourhood of Tim in Mango Town, and within six months, they’ve done smart home upgrades; a lovely swim spa with hydromassage jets and solar underwater lights. And they just keep throwing parties. Clearly, Tim is seeing how the lifestyle of the neighbours has become more blissful and sophisticated than that of his family.

This observation instantly sparks frustration, a feeling of injustice and somewhat an inflicted imagined injury. He will question, “how could these people come from their town and take advantage of the opportunities in ours and become more wealthier than us?” This impression yields in Tim a drive to eliminate this problem and all he feels is tension and hostility towards these neighbours. This right here is anger.

However, it is important to know that anger does not always yield toxic or harmful reactions. For instance, a teacher writes off her student as a hopeless case, but the student is angered by that, so he puts in extra effort to finish school, pursue a career, stays out of trouble and gains employment. In this case the anger motivated positive result. There was no harm or damage done as a result of the anger.

What is hostile aggression?

Hostile aggression is the drive to intentionally inflict harm and injury on others either physically or psychologically. Apart from anger, other emotions such as pain, hurt, fear, anxiety, shame, and stress can also activate hostile aggression. Let’s look at how these conditions or emotions activate hostile aggression.

First, anger activates aggression when “behaviour designed to remove the object of anger” is toxic and harmful to others. In other words, when we intentionally inflict harm and injury either physically or psychologically on others as our way of terminating the object of anger, we are functioning in hostile aggression.

Secondly, when experiences inflict pain, hurt or shame, our reaction may be pacifistic or vengeful. But when we choose revenge, we activate hostile aggression. Thirdly, when we encounter experiences that stir fear and anxiety, we find ourselves in fight or flight mode, and when we choose to fight with the toxic intention of inflicting harm and damages, hostile aggression is activated. This is why selfish and cunning influential voices such as political leaders and spiritual leaders often use fear and anxiety to manipulate followers in their agenda to gain massive and loyal support.

Lastly, when we come under stress, further experiences that may overload our capacity to hold up, can make us explode and activate hostile aggression. As we established in our first episode, prior attitude, knowledge or disposition is vital in processing intended messages so a depleted state of mental health, poor emotional intelligence and the lack of ability to apply intellect is vital in the manifestation of the elements of hate i.e., detestation, anger and especially hostile aggression.

Our daily life as stated in prior episodes, is a series of events that we encounter as our experiences. And these experiences transmit messages which we process based on our disposition to formulate attitude, and attitude is where emotions such as detestation, anger and hostile aggression are contained and expressed. In your daily life you encounter experiences that can cultivate detestation in you towards others because of who they are, their life choices, their faith, heritage, ideologies or political positions. They may seem very bold and unapologetic in upholding their choices, identity or position and that may come off as defiance, violation, disrespect, abuse or infringement towards you.

This may frustrate you and you may perceive it as injustice or feel injured either physically or psychologically, and that might tick you off into an emotional outburst or a drive to eliminate the situation. This is you acting with anger. Your anger and drive to eliminate the object of anger may be so strong that you will want to intentionally inflict injury or harm as part of the elimination process. But this feeling of disgust, tension, hostility, and aggression towards others is typical hate.

This is why your favourite political leader, spiritual leader or influential voice takes advantage of the “us against them” mentality to propagate narratives that will wind you up, incite detestation, anger and spark aggression in you towards those deemed as menace to your community, a detriment to your kind, your heritage, your economic wellbeing or your overall wellbeing.

Even if your frustration or perceived injustice is valid, hate is not the solution. Hate is toxic! It is unhealthy to you, your community, and the environment. Using hate to eliminate the cause of frustration and injustice will only cause more harm and damages.

In recap, we have established that hate is a hostile emotion constituted of utter detestation, anger, and hostile aggression and these are cultivated through our daily experiences which involves processing intended messages through our dispositions to arrive at attitudes that express such hostile emotions.

In our next post, we will look at some examples of intended messages. Until then, let’s keep our hearts Locked in Over and over Vigorously bonding until Eternity.