Rabidity: legend and reality

Rabidity: legend and reality

Rage! Rabidity!  Was that a werewolf, a vampire?  A dog or human infected with the lethal rabies virus?  Or a human exhibiting intermittent explosive behavior? The goal of this blog/book is to explore how and why these questions intertwine. We will search through various conceptions and images of rage and find that our understanding is still severely constrained by a lack of information regarding its natural biology.  Presently we find solace and therapeutic release from unbidden rampages via tales of vampires and werewolves, or by placing blame on (untreatable) psychiatric disorders.  In either case, we are relegating commonplace feelings and actions to an abyss beyond our comprehension, into the realm of supernatural forces or the dark recesses of the human mind.   

In order to realize what rage is, we must discover its biological underpinnings, even if we find we can only partially explain it.  Rage must not continue as a haven for supernatural and mystical forces beyond our power to direct.  It cannot continue as part of a laundry list of psychiatric terms that describe unconsciously directed antisocial behavior, but give us no avenue to treat it when it becomes uncontrollable. And it cannot carry on without a model with which we can study it, able to control when it begins and ends.  Our investigation will compel us to view rage and rabidity, through its primary advocate, the rabies virus, as critical questions for understanding our own most basic behavior and some of our most enjoyed myths and legends.

Rage is an essential part of life.  Defensive rage protects animals and their young from imminent predation.  It can bring out a strength and ferocity that seem, well, superhuman.  Rage, as excessive force, is often directed less at a specific target than at the world in general. It is gauged to deter the worst possible threat before the true severity of the threat can be determined. Tantrums, that can include hitting and even biting, are pretty common in toddlers.  However, these overt behaviors are strenuously drummed out of standard human behavior.  They can be dangerous to life and to civil interactions, and they abrogate rational, civilized discussion and compromise.  If we did not conquer our rage, it would lead to untold fighting -- even more than the world endures already.  And yet, feelings and actions of rage frequently try to break out from our bonds of civility, forcing us to fight back their overt expression.  And then we wonder where they came from, how they so easily overpower us without warning.  It’s as if we’ve been taken over by ‘others’.  The power of rage, frenzy, passion, etc. is well-accepted and understood to be uncontrollable. Indeed, crimes of passion, i.e. rage, can be used as a defendant's excuse for committing a crime - sudden anger or heartbreak - to eliminate premeditation. The result is to lessen the provable homicide to manslaughter with no death penalty and limited prison terms. A jury may even acquit the impassioned defendant. Although most of us can suppress our rage much of the time, some seem unable to do so; some may even use its appearance to their social advantage.  Therapists talk about intermittent explosive disorder, conduct disorder, and other terms.  Most of us just know to avoid people who have “short fuses”, “hair trigger tempers”, are prone to road rage.  Others may ascribe such behavior to vampires and werewolves, humans who have been turned into creatures of fury and passion. 

It is time to bring together as many of these conceptions as we can.  We must look for a biological, testable commonality that will allow us to accept the rage within us, understand why it exists and where it resides within our beings, and to find meaningful ways to treat those for whom rage is an uncontrolled disorder.  That is the goal, and the promise, of this blog/book.