Aggression is one of the most common responses to anxiety. Bar fights, stalking behaviors, sexual violence, road rage, or abuse of prisoners all come to mind. Aggression is the fight part of the fight-or-flight response. In a deeper way, aggression helps protect us from a feared threat. Aggression helps us to act power-fully against the fear experienced inside; the aggressor goes from feeling passive and helpless to active and strong, even though in reality he may become out of control.
He also becomes connected to his victim, an important factor if the underlying threat is abandonment. In attempting to understand aggression, it becomes useful to examine what the threat might be in any given situation. Bar fights may result from the perception that a man’s wife or girlfriend is being stolen. Sexual violence can be caused by feeling too feminine and wanting to undo the discomfort by making some-one else feel humiliation; abusing prisoners of war can stem from one’s own anxiety of annihilation in wartime.