You Must Look Beneath The Surface

Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus, like all Romans, seemed to have loved the theatre. Seneca, in particular, had a great fascination for what “actors in theatre who imitate the emotions” could teach him about dealing with people in real life. Many actors appear “most dangerous when they redden,” Seneca observed, but “they were letting all their sense of shame escape.” From that, he realized that with Sulla “when the blood mantled his cheeks” it was always “due...to the novelty of a situation.” And “Fabianus also, I remember, reddened when he appeared as a witness before the senate; and his embarrassment became him to a remarkable degree.”Evan Puschak, creator of the wildly popular Nerdwriter YouTube channel, made a great video a couple years ago, titled “Jack Nicholson: The Art of Anger.” The video is not only an eight minute montage of Nicholson’s very entertaining freak outs, it’s a distillation of a very human emotion. Like Seneca, Puschak wanted “to get a sense of the larger shape of anger as a human phenomenon.” Here’s what he learned:For Nicholson—and everybody else, for that matter—anger can be a form of desperation, a noise so loud that you don't have to hear your own insecurities. The larger and louder it is, the closer he is to recognizing a vulnerability in himself. That's the challenge for an actor playing this emotion. You're not just playing anger; you're playing what's under it. Most anger isn't psychotic. It's only a thin veneer for what's brewing below, and you have to be able to turn up the volume while preserving traces of this deeper motivation. This is a really powerful insight. To see that anger is not anger but often a glimpse of what is unresolved underneath. Sulla was revealing his weakness, his inexperience, his uncertainty. Fabianus was revealing his embarrassment. In The Border, Puschak points out, Nicholson was revealing fear. “Fear at what he's gotten himself into. Fear that he won't be able to get himself out.” Although the Stoics spend a lot of time dealing with the symptoms of anger, they don’t spend enough time really looking at what’s underneath. Marcus Aurelius couldn’t remind himself to go to therapy because it didn’t exist then. Seneca couldn’t talk about processing trauma because we didn’t really understand that yet. The Stoics lacked even some of the healing strategies that result from the Christian emphasis on forgiveness. But just because they didn’t have these things, it doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from them now. It’s not enough to just stuff your anger down or cut it off at the pass—you have to figure out what’s going on way before that. You have to look at the root causes. You have to look back at the road you traveled to understand how you got to this place, this moment. Tear off the mask. Look below. Look behind. And deal with it. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com. You Must Look Beneath the Surface Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus, like all Romans, seemed to have loved the theater. Seneca in particular had a great fascination for what actors in theater who imitate emotions could teach him about dealing with people in real life. "Many actors appear most dangerous

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  when they redden," he observed, "but they were letting all their sense of shame escape." From that, Seneca said, he realized how Sulla, when the blood mantled his cheeks, was always due to the novelty of a situation. "And Fabianus also," he said, "I remember reddened when he appeared as a witness before the Senate, and his embarrassment became him to a remarkable degree." Evan Puschak, creator of the wildly popular nerd writer YouTube channel, made a great video a couple of years ago titled "Jack Nicholson: The Art of Anger." The video is not only an eight-minute montage of Nicholson's very entertaining freakouts, it's a distillation

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  of a very human emotion. Like Seneca, Puschak wanted to get a sense of the larger shape of anger as a human phenomenon. And what he learned, he said, is that for Nicholson, and for everybody else for that matter, anger can be a form of desperation, a noise so loud that you don't have to hear your own insecurities. The larger and louder it is, the closer he is to recognizing a vulnerability in himself. "That's the challenge for an actor playing this emotion," he said. "You're not just playing anger, you're playing what's under it. Most anger isn't psychotic, it's only a thin veneer for what's brewing below, and you have to be able to turn up the volume while preserving traces of this deeper motivation."

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  This is a really powerful insight, to see that anger is not anger, but often a glimpse of what is unresolved underneath. Sulla was revealing his weakness, his inexperience, his uncertainty. Fabianus was revealing his embarrassment.

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  In "The Border," Push Jack points out, Nicholson was revealing fear, fear at what he's gotten himself into, fear that he won't be able to get himself out. Although the Stoics spend a lot of time dealing with the symptoms of anger, they don't spend enough time really looking at what's underneath. Marcus Aurelius couldn't remind himself to go to therapy because it didn't exist then. Seneca couldn't talk about processing trauma because we really didn't understand that yet. The Stoics lacked even some of the healing strategies that result from the Christian emphasis on forgiveness. But just because they didn't have these things doesn't mean that you can't benefit from them now. And it's not enough to just stuff your anger down or cut it off at the pass.

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  You have to figure out what's going on way before that. You have to look at the root causes. You have to tear off the mask. You have to look below and then deal with it. Anger is a problem that faces us all. We don't all have anger problems, but anger is a problem for everyone. You can learn how to control your temper with Daily Stoic's new course, "Taming Your Temper: The 10-Day Stoic Guide to Controlling Your Anger." Stoics recognized anger as a weakness to be mastered. They knew that anger left unchecked would consume you and take over your life. We can help you. I hope you check it out. Go to dailystoic.com/anger.