In DOLF psychology there are 3 essential negative Emotions: Anxiety, Depression and Anger. First, we are all born with an amorphous “cloud” of undefined Emotion. It begins as an overall feeling of Anxiety, which mainly fills us with the feeling fear, a most basic feeling of Anxiety. When we are born we shake, our body tingles and we are gripped by a need to scream and cry in shock. We squeeze open our eyes and gaze in wonderment at the world we just entered. Emotionally speaking, first and foremost we are possessed by feelings of insecurity: Who will feed me? Who will keep me warm and look after my bodily needs? Most critically we worry about Who will LOVE me? And, since we know from the Mind of a Child that every child is concerned with monopolizing ALL the LOVE from their closest source of Emotional warmth, DOLF adds: Who will LOVE ME alone and devote themselves exclusively to ME, ME ,ME??
With time, growth and experience in the real world, our initial quantity of Anxiety evolves. By the age of about one or two years our feelings are slowly differentiated, separating and becoming identifiable to ourselves and those around us as feelings of either Anxiety, Depression or Anger. The two negative feelings of Depression and Anger are opposite poles, a fact that has been known since Freudian times. DOLF theory adds that while a good portion of the generalized pool of Emotion remains as pure Anxiety that acts on its own, Anxiety as feeling anxious or anxious energy, is always an undercurrent to both Depression and Anger,
Beginning with this general Emotional base, we slowly start to experience increasingly well-defined Depression. The Depressive part of the original cloud of anxious energy is negative energy that is INTERNALIZED and directed inward against the SELF. It becomes expressed through behaviors that are aimed at SELF-destruction, and in serious cases of mental illness, even complete annihilation of the SELF. Feelings of Depression along with Anxiety work together to blame, torment and harm the SELF. This set of Emotions leads to diagnoses such as eating disorders, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, panic disorders, mild or severe depression, OCD and other manifestations ADHD that are essentially SELF-destructive. Inside themselves these people grow up feeling that THEY are at fault, unworthy and to blame for any negative social situations or circumstances that arise around them.
The other, more opposing part of the original ball of Anxious energy is channeled and manifested as Anger. This Angry Emotion, like Depression, is also always intermingled with underlying Anxiety. However unlike Depression, Anger it is EXTERNALIZED and aimed outward rather than becoming directed inward and harming the SELF. This negative energy in the form of Anger plus Anxiety becomes channeled socially and manifested through thoughts and actions that find blame and fault with OTHER people and situations outside the SELF. Inside themselves the Angry person feels that it is the OUTSIDE world that is impinging on their SELF and causing their SELF to be uncomfortable, dissatisfied and unhappy. The person harboring a great deal of Anger, such as a criminal, feels and behaves as if their SELF is being attacked by the outside world and that they are in need of defense and protection. Their feelings of Anger and aggression are aroused in response to factors in the environment that they feel are irritating or hurting their SELF. Their reaction of Angry feelings is expressed as urges and desires to change or alter the OUTSIDE world to better suit and service the personal needs of their inner SELF. Rather than see themselves as aggressors who have done harm toward others in the world, they see themselves as being impinged upon and victimized by the outside world. Not surprisingly, they appear to us the way we tend to label them – as “SELFISH”!
As mentioned above, it has long been known that Anger and Depression are contrasting, opposite poles of feeling or Emotion, so that whereas the Depression-Anxiety formulation turns these feelings inward, internalizes them and finds fault with one’s own SELF, the Anger–Anxiety combination externalizes negative feelings, seeking to redirect fault OUTWARD and shift blame away from the SELF and onto OTHERS. This Anger-based combination of feelings leads to diagnoses such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Sociopathy and Psychopathy, as well as many more common behaviors we encounter every day such as stubbornness, embellishing truths or lying, contrarian attitudes, rebellion against authority figures, outrageous departures from average behavior such as choosing to be a member of goth subculture, or adherence to philosophies that generally challenge and stand against current accepted social and/or political views.
While a part of the total pool of Anxiety is always attached to each of Depression and Anger, Anxiety can also operate separately in a sphere of its own. In its pure form, Anxiety creates a proprietary set of symptoms such as malaise, discomfort, agitation, nervous arousal, fear, worry or dread and leads to diagnoses such as OCD, phobias, ADHD, panic disorder or PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder). Similarly to Depression, when on its own, Anxiety gives rise to thoughts, feelings and behaviors that are aimed INWARD and target the SELF. As such, rather than seeking to cause damage or seek revenge on outside resources. these feelings assault and are harmful to the SELF.
But following DOLF theory, and bearing in mind that the particular adjustment of the three negative Emotions in any one person is established in childhood, our question regarding the development of excessive Anger and criminal behavior is most relevant. For How is it that some people build up such an immense pool of Anger during their early lives, while others, perhaps raised in the same or similar environments, do not? Furthermore, once their Anger is formed by their late teens or adulthood, rather than try to reform their behavior by disciplining, isolating or incarcerating them, how should we manage their Angry feelings and behavior so we can better fit these people into our normal society, or possibly even avoid such outcomes before they appear?
DOLF attributes Angry behavior to a lack of sufficient feeling of parental LOVE in our Family of Origin. Specifically, we refer back to feelings of Disfavor encountered by the misbehaving child from their PLG or Prime Love Giving parent, and a poor relationship with this PLG, compared with their next born sibling. DOLF asserts that SIBLING RIVALRY and Disfavor are the main irritating factors that are ultimately responsible for the build-up of Anger in early childhood and lead to a personality infused with the 3 negative feelings, in the case of a criminal, mainly Anger. Through the observation of numerous families over almost half a decade this author found that the sense of Disfavor compared with a next born sibling is the most salient condition and the main reason behind the behaviors we observe throughout life.
In DOLF we use the knowledge first exposed by Freud and his colleagues, about the seesaw action between Anger and Depression. These scholars found out that when Anger rises, Depression goes down, and when Depression rises, Anger diminishes. It means that if Anger is too low it needs to be bolstered in treatment. Conversely, the answer to reducing Anger, such as with a criminal or rebellious person, is for the therapist to assist the client in tapping into their Depression. This means that the focus of treatment for an Angry person or one in Anger Management training should be on eliciting and resolving the sad thoughts, events, LOSSES, failures and Anger that the person experienced and felt in response to their overall sense of Disfavor in comparison with their rival sibling. It is hypothesized that their feeling of Disfavor is what undermined the person as a child, irritated them and built up their Anger. This dynamic is what led up to the negative behaviors, opinions, attitudes, social behaviors and rebellious expressions that we see in the Disfavored person later on. With the help of DOLF theory we know beforehand, or a priori and without the need to ask the history or re-confirm the facts, that these Angry thoughts and feelings most often had to do with insufficiency, shortage or even complete lack of parental LOVE, specifically from the PLG and feelings of Disfavor in comparison with their rival sibling. Ample examples are provided in the blogs that review the case histories of criminals. Also provided is a list of those criminals whose offenses are believed to be the result of feelings of Disfavor compared with a sibling according to their documented personal histories. (See blogs about Bart Whitaker, Alan Hruby, Ted Kaczynski for extensive analysis of motivation. Also see: List of Criminals Whose Crimes Can Be Attributed to Sibling Rivalry)