War Nerd is a very talented journalist who writes about war. I have enjoyed his articles for a while but now that I’m reading them as a book, I want to suggest this small volume as a great therapeutic practice.
We all have a dark, violent side to our personality. In order to exist in civilization, we suppress our violent urges. We say, “Excuse me, this was my seat” in apologetic voices instead of grabbing the usurper of our seat by the hair and smashing his head against a tree. (If you are from my part of tge world, yoh do but that’s another story.) We say, “I love your handbag!” instead of grabbing the bag with a growl and trying to run off with it.
This darker side doesn’t really go anywhere, though. It sits inside of us, hidden from view. For the most part, we manage to suppress it well enough. I mean, if we are violent criminals, we don’t suppress shit but I’m guessing there aren’t many of those reading my blog. The law-abiding among us go into professions that require a high degree of aggression (teacher, surgeon, career soldier, telemarketer) and turn our anger into a socially acceptable and productive force. We use our rage to rant against “vile freakazoids” (c) on our blogs. We create art and go in for sports.
However, this repressed and socially mitigated anger still erupts every once in a while. We catch glimpses of it in violent fantasies, dreams, thoughts. There is absolutely nothing wrong with those fantasies but we are socialized to think all violence is bad. So our immediate reaction to these feelings is that of guilt.
And do you know what the most destructive emotion you can experience is? Guilt. Want to see a psychoanalyst really freak out? Say “I really blame myself for whatever,” and enjoy the spectacle of the poor analyst flipping out like World War 3 has just been announced.
The best way to relieve this sense of guilt is through dark humour. When we make jokes about violence or discuss war in a light-hearted manner, we temporarily place ourselves in a psychological space where the violence inside us is neither scary nor shameful. And that is a great relief.
The War Nerd writes about war with such a great sense of humor that reading his book is like an intense session of psychotherapy at a fraction of the cost and with triple the fun.
By the way, reading, sharing or listening to dark humor is one of the most therapeutic things you can do.
Clarissa's Blog 
I have no fear of my animal self, although it sometimes raises my adrenaline level really high indeed. It’s not something outside of me. I also know I have tremendous features of will and goodness, so I don’t fear being overcome by some inner propensity for evil-doing.
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Did I somehow trigger this with Sniper Cat?
Oh, wait, awful pun. 🙂
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“And do you know what the most destructive emotion you can experience is? Guilt.”
If you didn’t feel guilty for doing something wrong, wouldn’t that be a bigger problem? Isn’t that how sociopaths behave?
You do something bad to someone, you feel guilt, you make amends for it, and then move on. What’s so wrong about this process?
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“You do something bad to someone, you feel guilt, you make amends for it, and then move on.”
– Most of the guilt people feel doesn’t happen according to this scenario. Guilt serves an enormous array of purposes. It is our internal mechanism that keeps us in line. But it does that by simultaneously destroying us. Guilt can also serve as a motivational mechanism. People do something “bad” (drink, overeat, smoke, stay up all night playing video games, etc.). Then they feel guilty for these “bad” behaviors, and that guilt propels them to “make amends” by being “good”, work harder than usual, be kinder to others. Their internal mechanism of motivation is broken and they need to engage in self-destructive behaviors to get themselves to do anything at all.
Also, guilt can offer a false sense of control over reality, etc.
Haven’t you ever felt guilt for things that caused absolutely no harm to other people? Like when you wake up at 1 pm, see the time, and go, “Oh God, I’m such a loser!” and then start to self-castigate? If not, you are a happy, happy person.
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Heh. I felt guilty for betraying my family by not saving them retrospectively from themselves. In fact, though, I had a very think psyche, without much developed ego structure, so feeling guilty bought me time to set aside purely for myself, to develop an intellect and ego structure.
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