Explosive People

Explosive People is an investigative memoir by MacArthur scholar and critically acclaimed author of Against the World that explores rage—its affects and effects—through the murky and maligned diagnosis known as Intermittent Explosive Disorder, the most widespread mental illness you’ve never heard of.

Evert outburst of rage–regardless of how misfired–harbours a history. Sometimes it is a lineage of personal wounds, feelings of being inadequate, unappreciated, unheard. But political and social forces, including gender, class, and racial inequality also inflict and infect the wounds we carry. “Intermittent Explosive Disorder” (IED) is the only condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) that centers on anger. Even by the most conservative estimate, IED afflicts more people than suffer from schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and all forms of bipolar disorder combined. Classified as an “impulse-control” disorder, IED goes largely undiagnosed, but it is recognizable, especially among those who live closest to it.

Tara Zahra does. So does her father, and his mother, and generations of their family going back years. When Tara decides to start her own family, she wonders: What will this intergenerational history of rage mean for her own child? How much of her anger is hereditary, environmental, cultural, or caused by something else?

Explosive People explores the broader history of anger and treatment of IED. In it, Tara seeks out the brain scientists, psychiatrists, sociologists and criminologists who have researched anger and aggression, alongside the mental health professionals who treat it and others who suffer from it. She also confronts the controversy around the IED diagnosis itself, exploring its limitations and the stigmas associated with it.