Writing a Family History of Rage

In the last decade, rage has arguably become the zeitgeist. “Rage bait” was Oxford’s word of the year in 2025- defined as social media content designed to enrage us. Social media, airports, tennis courts, street protests, and of course, the White House have become settings for firework displays of explosive anger. While many people have been shocked or bewildered by all this rage, I have experienced an unsettling feeling of recognition. I know these people. Intimately. Not the ones protesting civilly, but the ones breaking windows and losing their minds in airports. I do not recognize them because I necessarily share their politics, but because I come from a tribe of screamers- people who flip out in public places.

In the 1990s, my father was diagnosed with a condition called “Intermittent Explosive Disorder” (IED), the only condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) that centers on anger. IED conveniently shares an acronym with roadside bombs in war zones. It evokes landmines, sometimes set decades ago, which are randomly triggered and maim innocent bystanders. I knew that my great-grandfather and grandmother were “explosive people,” and have also struggled with anger my whole life.

I began to wonder how my family history of rage might be connected to the political and social history unfolding before me- and how it might affect my own future family. My paper explores the process of trying to write a family history of rage and mental illness, intertwining memoir and research. What can we learn about rage and mental health more broadly from one family’s story?