What causes some men to be aggressive?

We cannot assign responsibility only to a macho society and blame it for all the nastiness. Also, there must be a reason why some men are violent and others are not.
There are certain psychopathological conditions, such as those demonstrated by the sociopath, that produce violent behavior in women as well as men, with responses that are atypical of the very separate problem of domestic violence. We are speaking here of people who respect no social standards and who respond to no type of conventional treatment; those who often end up in jail, paying for their crime.

The difference is in an emotion: shame. For example, the psychopath ‘has no shame.” He doesn’t hold himself responsible due to lack of consciousness that he has done anything wrong. This person feels no remorse for his faults.
However, the male who responds with violence in his home or under certain other circumstances in which he knows it must be tolerated, does “suffer shame” and it is this very shame that produces his anger and consequent aggressive behavior.


- Dr. Ana Nogales