Is Road Rage a Mental Disorder?
“Road rage” is a popular topic on the talk show circuit. I once saw an episode of ‘Politically Incorrect’ that featured a psychologist (Arnold Nerenberg, Ph.D.) who claimed to have “discovered” road rage as a new mental disorder. It bothers me when people discover new disorders, especially when they appear to be setting themselves up as pioneers in the treatment of these “disorders.” The same thing happened with “Internet addiction” a few years ago. While some people clearly have problems with their Internet use, this does not mean that they are necessarily ‘addicted’ to the Internet. There has been a backlash in the United States over the pathologizing of behavior. Some fear that defining road rage as a mental disorder will allow criminals to plead that they were mentally ill and not responsible for their actions. This opinion was expressed by several on Politically Incorrect, and Dr. Nerenberg was defensive all night. The “insanity defense” is actually a legal concept and it is not d
though they aren’t responsible for their actions. After all, if chemicals in your brain are making you do it, what choice do you really have? According to a study performed by the National Institute of Mental Health, road rage is a mental disorder. In other words, when you’re happily driving down the freeway and some guy in a pick-up truck cuts you off while flipping you the finger, he isn’t just a jerk with an attitude, but a victim of intermittent explosive disorder. Intermittent explosive disorder is the mental health term coined for people who experience explosive episodes of rage, particularly while driving. Road rage is something that has been joked about for decades, but is now surfacing as a mental disorder. Pretty soon, you’ll see people on the stand for vehicular manslaughter claiming a defense of temporary insanity due to intermittent explosive disorder (a.k.a. road rage). They’ll claim that chemicals in the brain forced them to act out an episode of rage, and perhaps the ju
Should Road Rage become an official mental disorder? One psychologist has gone on talk shows advocating this. Road rage is certainly a problem, but it doesn’t deserve the status of a unique mental disorder. Is Road Rage a Mental Disorder? Comments are closed for this post. See All Posts Share Prev Next if(zs>0){if(zSbL250)gE
