[Avodah] Not livid with anger

[rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com]

RDR:
> There's a machlokes between Aristotle and Hume about whether the
> intellect controls the emotion, or visa versa. "

According to Albert Ellis of Rational Emotive Therapy (RET)

And
Aaron Beck and David Burns of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

An intervening thought always precedes an emotion.

Illustration: a man from Mars sees an injustice - a man drugs another man and slices his arm off.

As the martian is about to play Pinchas he is informed that this is normal and that the surgeon is amputating the arm in order to protect the life of his patient.

The butchery perceived by said martian has been "reframed" to see benevolence instead of violence.

Thus proper wisdom and attitude is key.  Part of this includes a shakla v'tarya to dispute irrational thoughts

Rabbi Zelig Pliskin refers to this stuff, and I suspect Rabbi A Twersky does, too.

The practice requires discipline, introspection and a mentor-therapist of a good chavrusa

----------------------

Bottom line which-ever comes first - viz. Thought or Emotion - may vary but the accompanying irrational assumption can always be short-circuited.


Micha:
> The Orchos Tzadiqim
> makes a point of showing where each middah has a positive use, some are
> constructive more often than others, bet every middah is assigned some
> context in which it's positive.

WADR to Orchos Tzaddiqim If I'm not mistaken - Qoheles beat him to the
punch by several Millenia! :-)

Mussar Heskel?  Mishlei, Iyyov, Qoheles etc. Are chockful of "machshava"

+++++++++++++++

FWIW Orchos Tzaddiqim was IIRC my first mussar sefer and it is IMHO
probably THE best for a typical novice.

KT
RRW
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[Alan Morinis found the same among his student population. -micha]