PsychCentral

It is even more ironic that, after years of abusing people, he should think of himself as protecting others from abuse, Sam comes to feel like the “victim” of these ingrates. Their ingratitude makes him angry. Sam’s anger is based on a constellation of expectations that make him vulnerable to volcanic eruptions. Here are some underlying beliefs that contribute to explosive anger:

1. “You are unfair to me. If I am ‘good’ to you then I expect you to be good to me in return. That’s fair.”

2. “Unfairness makes me angry because it is wrong. People shouldn’t be wrong, they should be right, like me.”

3. “Wrong-doers are inferior. It is my right to stand in morally superior judgment upon them.”

4. “Wrongness needs to be punished. It is my self-imposed responsibility to punish wrongdoers for their own good, so they will not do it again, especially to me.”

5. “They have failed to live up to my expectations of a perfectly fair reciprocity. They have disappointed me. Disappointment is painful to me, so I am entitled to inflict the equivalent degree of pain upon them in the name of fairness as I have defined it.”

6. “I am the victim of their wrong-doing. Victimization makes me angry. I am entitled to victimize them as they have victimized me.”

Sam is not consciously aware that he has these expectations. He acquired them in childhood. They worked for his father and he sees no need to review or question them now. The whole idea of self-examination is too painful and too scary to be accepted.

We can teach people how to disengage emotionally from this antagonism. Then they will be free to do the unexpected. Instead of defending themselves against him, they can agree that he feels the way he feels. They can calm him down by saying, “It’s awful when that happens, isn’t it?” or “I don’t blame you for feeling that way,” or “That must be painful.”

We can even learn to validate his anger. “I am sorry that you are so angry.” This is not rationalizing, defending or submitting, it is empathizing. We can say, “I’m sorry that you are feeling victimized by all of this, but could it be you are perceiving victimization where no victimization was intended? I don’t blame you for being angry.”

These are the last things he expects us to say. We can be creative and find even more ways to take his side in spite of his abusive antagonism. We can ask, “What can we do to make it better?” No matter his answer, we can respond by saying, “I never thought of it that way.”

It takes courage to say these things for the first time. It’s scary. If it weren’t scary, we wouldn’t need courage. Our reward will be a degree of relief from the pain he has been causing us.

There are always two lines of attack in dealing with antagonistic individuals:

The first is at an organization’s leadership level. For years I’ve given a two-module seminar to churches, arts organizations and companies on how to identify and then create an antagonist proof work environment. Obviously, real leadership is the best option…

But, when management can not or will not take the responsibility they were entrusted or, worse yet, management is the problem, the above suggestions will do nicely to make the situation tolerable.

But, the linked author forgot to add one line:

WHILE you execute an exit strategy ASAP!!!!!