There is no deep-rooted, intrinsic need in humans, male or female, to be violent. The origin of violent behavior is found in early infantile and childhood development when natural emotional needs, which are benign and non-destructive, are not met and are instead chronically frustrated and thwarted by people in the environment, especially the parents. The reaching out, the emotions of the infant and child, turn into rage which manifests as disordered behavior and violence. Although the form of violence is often different in men and women, the violence of males is typically physical whereas the violence of females is typically emotional, the destructive effect is the same.
Children whose emotional needs are met during their development, from birth through adolescence, will not become violence-prone no matter how much violence they are exposed to. Conversely, children whose emotional needs are frustrated during their development will always be prone to destructive behavior in one form or another, even if they have never been exposed to violent scenes in the media. Their destructive behavior will be passed on to their own offspring through the same kind of emotional abuse that was visited upon them. This is how human destructiveness perpetuates itself from generation to generation.
This material is discussed in detail in my book The Emotional Plague: The Root of Human Evil.
Leave a comment
No comments yet.
Neither Left Nor Right
The Emotional Plague
Charles Konia, M.D. 
Leave a Reply