"Anger is a prehistoric emotion that no longer works."

BarcelonaTo what extent is it useful to be angry and indignant with oneself or others? What if, in reality, these are outdated emotions that no longer serve any purpose? This is the premise that clinical psychologist Pedro Jara defends after years as a therapist in his book Fossil emotions (Aguilar, 2025).

"I'm surprised that many of the claims made by conventional and academic psychology say that anger, rage, and guilt—which is rage toward oneself—are healthy emotions, and that people who never express them have a problem," Jara laments. For him, these emotions served us well at a certain point in history, but now they are, as the title of the book says, fossil emotions.

"Rage is an adaptive emotion to threats, grievances, and situations that require hand-to-hand combat," the psychologist continues. In other words, rage is an emotion that has been hardwired into our biological programming through thousands of years of evolution. It has an adaptive function to protect us from threats and physical aggression, such as the appearance of a predator or a fight against a rival tribe that endangers the life of the clan. Back in the days when we didn't have refrigerators or cars, this "short-term, self-centered" attitude was, in a way, adaptive to the environment.

However, these primitive characteristics of our brain are, today, highly maladaptive, according to Jara. To begin with, because today the threats and aggressions we receive are more of the "psychological, social, economic, or legal" variety, which requires "much more refined empathy, communication, and decision-making skills," he continues.

Updating the emotional software

It's clear that making this evolutionary change isn't easy, considering that, in reality, "our living conditions have changed very rapidly in a historically very short time," Jara clarifies. "In many ways, we're still apes who have created a system of civilization for which we are very ill-equipped, with very old and obsolete biological and psychological programming," he continues.

Therefore, according to the psychologist, it's necessary to update ours. software emotional and our mental programming. To achieve this, we must do "systematic and deliberate work to create epigenetic conditions and learning models that shape this instinctive tendency that is now breaking down," he continues.

Obviously, it is not possible to extinguish and uninstall anger and guilt if, at the same time, we do not make "profound transformations" in the area of self-esteem, or if we do not work on our fears, frustrations, jealousy, and many other emotions that can overwhelm us throughout life.

A utopia? Yes, but, according to Jara, it is possible and desirable to move in that direction. "Ending world hunger is a utopia, but it would be miserable not to work toward that goal, because in theory it is possible and it is what must be done," he compares. It is clear that it is not easy and each person must do some work of observation and introspection. "We can't deny that we're feeling emotions like anger, but it's about not justifying it, but rather analyzing and channeling it," the psychologist continues. Only in this way, according to Jara, is a person able to stop generating and nurturing these emotions. "They realize their futility and begin to look for much more adaptive alternatives," he continues.

For the psychologist, it's perfectly possible to evolve toward this moral conscience based on empathy, compassion, and the will to cooperate and learn. To achieve this, he offers some advice when facing situations in which our anger may well up inside.

First of all, "we must clearly decide what the limits are of what we consider tolerable or permissible in the treatment we receive from others," he clarifies. Once this limit is clear, we must be persistent in upholding it so as not to let anyone go beyond what we consider acceptable. But the important thing is to communicate it "in a scrupulously neutral tone and without emotional charge," Jara continues. Phrases like "You realize that..." or "You are aware that..." are kind but forceful, with which you can inform the other person that they are crossing a line and with which, politely, you can ask them to change their attitude. If the person does not pay attention, you should continue insisting or they do not listen to reason, "it is best to leave and tell them that when they change their attitude, you can continue the relationship," she concludes.