Brilliant Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, 2nd Edition

Inflexible people are more likely to snap

The other distinctive feature of angry people is the rigidity of their thinking. They tend to be very dogmatic in their attitudes and their inner world is governed by innumerable rules that are often expressed in the form of ‘must’ and ‘should’ statements. To the person prone to anger their beliefs often seem self-evident: of course people should never swear; it’s obvious that people who claim unemployment benefit are scrounging off the state; it stands to reason that there is always a right way and a wrong way to do most things.

Angry people are often highly invested in their rules and assumptions about how the world ought to be, and how it ought to treat them. Consequently, when their rules are ignored ...