These days it seems like more and more people feel compelled to blow up, explode, or rant and rave in public settings. As Judy Ford, a psychotherapist and best-selling author, puts it, "Uproar is a way of making one's own concerns more important than anyone else's. It's the angry person's syndrome. An angry person imagines an insult and immediately hurls insults right back. They overpower others with threats and loud voices."

In this practical and user-friendly paperback, the author discusses how individuals can deal more effectively with this powerful feeling that colors how they relate to self, partners, children, and co-workers. The positive management of anger means not suppressing it, ignoring it, or letting it harden into hostility: "Notice that anger is one letter short of danger. A little anger is helpful; too much anger is hurtful."

Monitoring this emotion gives us insight into its proper role in our lives. Ford writes cogently about the hurt, disappointment, and pain beneath anger; its shadow elements when used to manipulate, control, or hurt others; and its toxic expression in violence, aggression, and war. At one point she proclaims: "Examining your anger and using it to understand who you are is right action. It puts you in the presence of the Divine."

The author covers a variety of antidotes to anger including patience, forgiveness, exercise, releasing grudges, howling at the moon, and learning spiritual lessons from it. The chapters on dealing with this emotion in relationships, with children, and on the job are filled with helpful tips.