Dr paul ekman emotions revealed recognizing faces and feelings to improve communication and em 0

attack physically. Similarly, there are aggressive behaviors that do not involve physical violence, such as being overly assertive or dominating, and many researchers do not separate aggressiveness from either physical violence or verbal abuse. Then there are those who destroy property in an act of violence, breaking chairs, glasses, and so forth. We don't know whether these are all due to the same causes, the same upbringing, for example, or mediated by the same brain activity. If that were so, we might expect to find that people who are verbally abusive are also aggressive and physically violent, but while that can happen, there are also people who show one and never show the other forms of violence. That suggests that it would be wise at this point in our study of violence to examine separately those who engage only in verbal abuse, those who show only highly aggressive but not abusive behaviors (not always easy to distinguish, I realize), and those who show physical violence. Only in that way can we determine if they have the same causes, and if one is a step to another.

Even when restricting our focus to physical violence, there are many types to consider, only some of which might be signs of an emotional disorder. Society considers some violent acts socially useful. All but pacifists believe that sometimes war is justifiable. There also are occasions when individual violence is justified. When a police sharpshooter kills a person who is threatening the lives of the children he holds hostage, few would object to his violence, especially if the person who is shot had already killed one or more of the children. It is not just the police who may be justified in killing; most would agree an individual can be violent if that is required to save the lives of family members, or even of strangers. Violence that does not prevent worse acts of violence, but is motivated by revenge or retribution, is understandable, although we do not approve of it as much.

In a discussion of these ideas with my friend and colleague, the evolutionary philosopher Helena Cronin, 24 she pointed out that in all cultures, and in all times in history that we know of, certain forms of violence have been considered justifiable. Infidelity, suspected infidelity, and the threat of or actual rejection by a sexual partner are the most common causes of murder, and men kill women