Title
Payback [electronic resource] : why we retaliate, redirect aggression, and take revenge / David P. Barash and Judith Eve Lipton.
ISBN
9780199753215 (electronic book)
9780195395143
Publication Details
New York, N.Y. : Oxford University Press, 2011.
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (xii, 209 p.)
Call Number
BF515 .B37 2011eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
155.9/2
Summary
From the child taunted by her playmates to the office worker who feels stifled in his daily routine, people frequently take out their pain and anger on others, even those who had nothing to do with the original stress. The bullied child may kick her puppy, the stifled worker yells at his children: Payback can be directed anywhere, sometimes at inanimate things, animals, or other people. In this book, the authors, an evolutionary biologist and a psychiatrist, offer a look at this phenomenon, showing how it has evolved, why it occurs, and what we can do about it. Retaliation and revenge are well known to most people. We all know what it is like to want to get even, get justice, or take revenge. What is new in this book is an extended discussion of redirected aggression, which occurs not only in people but other species as well. The authors reveal that it's not just a matter of yelling at your spouse "because" your boss yells at you. Indeed, the phenomenon of redirected aggression, so called to differentiate it from retaliation and revenge, the other main forms of payback, haunts our criminal courts, our streets, our battlefields, our homes, and our hearts. It lurks behind some of the nastiest and seemingly inexplicable things that otherwise decent people do, from road rage to yelling at a crying baby. And it exists across boundaries of every kind, culture, time, geography, and even species. Indeed, it's not just a human phenomenon. Passing pain to others can be seen in birds and horses, fish and primates, in virtually all vertebrates. It turns out that there is robust neurobiological hardware and software promoting redirected aggression, as well as evolutionary underpinnings. Payback may be natural, the authors conclude, but we are capable of rising above it, without sacrificing self-esteem and social status. They show how the various human responses to pain and suffering can be managed mindfully, carefully, and humanely.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description
Description based on print version record.
Passing the pain along
Biology: animals and molecules
Personal: slings, arrows, and outrageous scapegoating
Social: revenge, feuding, rioting, terrorism, war, and other delights
Stories: pain-passing in myth and literature
Justice: not revenge?
Overcoming: shall we?
The Jewish way (Halakah)
Some Christian ways
The way of A.A.
The way of Islam
Gandhi's way
The Buddhist way
The way of psychology and physiology
The game theorist's way
The economist's way
The psychiatrist's way
The way of apology
The way of the world
Conclusion: the principle of minimizing pain (an 11th commandment).
