When thinking about aggression in psychosocial support, it is easy to focus on what is immediately visible—raised voices, hostility, physical activation, or property damage. While these behaviours understandably attract attention, they often represent only the surface of a much deeper emotional process.

By looking beneath the behaviour, we begin to understand that aggression is often linked to overwhelming emotional experiences and difficulties with emotional regulation. Rather than asking, "How do we stop this behaviour?", psychosocial support encourages a different question:

Aggression as Emotional Protection

For many people, aggression functions as emotional protection rather than intentional hostility.

Instead of expressing vulnerability, fear, shame, sadness, or rejection, these painful emotions may emerge through anger or confrontation. Psychodynamic theory describes this as a defensive process that protects individuals from emotional experiences that feel too painful or unsafe to acknowledge directly.

Rice and Hoffman (2014) suggest that disruptive behaviours can operate to remove distressing emotional experiences from conscious awareness.

For example, when a participant reacts aggressively after hearing the word "no" or when boundaries are established, the aggression may not actually be about the boundary itself. Instead, it may reflect feelings of rejection, helplessness, loss of control, or not feeling understood.

Without effective ways of regulating these emotions, aggression becomes the immediate outlet.

Emotional Regulation and Its Limits

Much of emotional regulation occurs outside conscious awareness. Individuals rarely choose how they react during moments of significant distress. Instead, the nervous system responds automatically, drawing on developmental experiences, attachment relationships, and previous coping patterns.

When emotional regulation is limited, emotions can escalate rapidly. This may appear as:

From this perspective, aggression is not the starting point—it is the outcome of an internal process that has exceeded the individual's capacity to regulate.

A Psychodynamic Understanding of Aggression

Psychodynamic thinking offers a different perspective on aggression. Rather than viewing aggression as inherently negative, Donald Winnicott described it as an important part of healthy emotional development.

Healthy aggression is closely connected to vitality, spontaneity, curiosity, and engagement with the world. When children grow up within safe and responsive relationships, they gradually learn how to express strong emotions without becoming overwhelmed by them.

Winnicott referred to this supportive relational experience as a "holding environment"—an emotional space where feelings can be experienced safely, understood, and integrated.

When this environment is absent or inconsistent, aggressive impulses may become disorganised, leading to acting out towards others or turning distress inward.

The Role of the Support Worker

Psychosocial support workers play an important role within this regulatory process. Many participants rely on external regulation before they are able to develop stronger internal regulation skills.

Rather than responding only to behaviour, support workers can help create opportunities for emotional understanding and co-regulation.

Over time, repeated experiences of co-regulation help individuals strengthen their own emotional regulation abilities. Through safe and consistent relationships, participants gradually develop greater emotional awareness, distress tolerance, and healthier ways of expressing difficult emotions.