Women's anger and its meanings: a phenomenological perspective.

This study focused on the interactions of somatizations, thoughts, and social processes evolving from unrecognized, unexpressed, or repressed anger in women. Material from patients' clinical narratives was phenomenologically described and interpreted. The most critical finding was the transformation of anger as lived by women into socially acceptable pathology. Anger was left in silence, and the possibilities for its expression were found in physiological disorders, substance abuse, self-deprecation, and affiliation problems, among other conditions.