Anger is an emotion all of us are familiar with. Sometimes, circumstances just cause things to happen that truly resonates with us in a bad way, causing anger.
Because of how evident it is when one is angry, people often overlook the mix of countless emotions that could be occurring beyond what seems to be simply anger. This is where the iceberg metaphor comes in.
Anger essentially works the same way as an iceberg. By this, I mean that icebergs are gigantic pieces of ice floating around in the ocean, and while you see a portion of it on the surface there is often far more iceberg beneath the surface than what is visible. This is much like anger. When we are angry, there are other emotions prevalent under the surface, but not visible to others. These emotions are shown below the surface on the infographic, and are known as the “primary emotions”.
These emotions are known as primary emotions because anger is often described as a secondary emotion that is used to protect overwhelming primary emotions. These emotions can even affect the type of anger we feel. For example, if one’s significant other were to break up with them, they might feel a lonely or hurt kind of anger. Meanwhile, if one were to get insulted by another, they would feel more of a disrespected and offended anger.
At the end of the day, humans are truly complex creatures. This Anger Iceberg does a good job of giving a metaphorical look at a major part of us as humans, and what causes us to react the way we do.