Anger and mental rumination
Francesca Martino, Gabriele Caselli, Giovanni Maria Ruggiero, Sandra Sassaroli
Although research is mainly focused on depressive rumination, recently another form of rumination
has been studied in scientific literature: anger rumination. Anger rumination is negative and repetitive
thinking focused on the cause and the consequences of past episodes of anger. This process is
considered to be responsible for increasing and maintaining anger. Furthermore, it has been shown
that high and extended feelings of rage could lead to aggressive behaviours. Over the last few years,
researchers have hypothesized an implication of anger rumination in enhancing and maintaining
problematic behaviour in psychopathology, especially in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). This
study aims to review the principal results of scientific literature on anger rumination in order to
highlight the construct, its cognitive, emotional and behavioural correlates and its implications in
cognitive psychopathology.
Keywords
Anger Rumination, Anger, Aggression, Behavioural Dysregulation, Cognitive
Behavioural Therapy, Cognitive Processes.
