Anger as a Sign of Healing, Not Failure

In a personal essay for the Rubin Museum, journalist and artist Devrupa Rakshit argues that anger, often pathologized in marginalized groups, can be a crucial part of the healing process. Drawing on somatic psychology and her own experience as an autistic person, she explains that emotions like rage are often suppressed during survival mode and surface only when the body feels safe. She critiques how society labels anger in women as hysteria, and in disabled and neurodivergent people as dysregulation, framing it as a threat to the status quo. Rakshit recounts a confrontation with a family member who dismissed her needs, followed by a period of shutdown and excessive politeness, until anger emerged after she left, helping her set boundaries. She concludes that wrath is not regression but delayed clarity, and that listening to anger can make healing honest. The essay was published on the Rubin Museum's website.