Treating anger in psychotherapy: Introduction and cases

Although client anger is a ubiquitous presenting problem for psychotherapy and a challenging in-session phenomenon for the psychotherapist, it has bee n oddly neglected by the clinical community. This article introduces an iss ue of in Session devoted to the conceptualization and treatment of anger in psychotherapy from multiple theoretical perspectives. The authors generate consensual definitions of anger, aggression, and hostility and then provid e two case vignettes that the contributors address in their subsequent arti cles. Both technical diversity and strategic convergence, it is suggested, are required to enhance the effective treatment of anger disorders. (C) 199 9 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.