Product Description

Carl Semmelroth's The Anger Habit is a leading anger-management book that is poised to become a major force in the category. This book is centered around the principle that for those who have anger problems, anger can be a learned response. Often the people with the problem don't realize that they are acting habitually, or why they are.

Semmelroth takes you step by step through the process of identifying and getting over the anger habit.

Case studies and stories show you how to avoid:
- Feelings of losing control
- Depression
- Panic
- Family battles

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #123102 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Dale M Brethower, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Western Michigan University
"The Anger Habit is a powerful, thought-provoking, and readable book...based upon sound psychological principles and actual practice."

Customer Reviews

How did anyone find this helpful?
I read this book over the course of two days. At 140 pages (rather typical for a one-trick pony self-help book) it was easy to digest. However instead of assisting with my anger, I merely became more angry - at having spent money on this book.

Much of the advice is relegated to semi-fictional discussions with patients. The advice is catered to their situations and circumstances. They do not cover enough breadth or depth to be of help to anyone other than those who fall into those archetypes.

Many of the chapters concluded with a phrase or vibe similar to "now you can see...". Well no, no I cannot. I did not see how many of the stories lead to their conclusions at all. The "solutions" generally revolve around identifying the anger. The actual coping mechanisms are thin, trite, or outright laughable. The authors appear to believe that merely identifying why you are angry will correct the angry behavior.

Reading this book did give me one insight into my own behavior, but it was somewhat indirect, and offered no advice for correcting it.

Requires some digging
Although the book has many helpful ideas, it isn't what I call straight forward. I prefer clearly deliniated principles that can be applied to unique situations. Many principles can be extracted here, but are buried in a format that is not to my liking. One could take the "alternative" responses Semmelroth and Smith give to the various scenarios they have chosen too literally as the "correct" or "only" responses, rather than as a guide, which I think is their intent. I found Semmelroth's The Anger Habit Workbook much more useful. It can be used as a stand-alone book that doesn't really need this book as a first-read.

a fantastic, challenging book
this is an eye-opening book. I'm a therapist and highly recommend it to anyone interested in grappling with one's own(or others') anger. I found some of the writing perhaps needlessly dense, but much of it was compact and eloquent. The letter-writing format, in my view, worked; it was a novel approach to a subject that's been rendered dry and dull in more conventional structural formats. In a word, this is just a flat-out, great book--a profound, startling meditation on anger.