Those who have been reading this blog since its start, hopefully remember this early post about my personal tools of frustration release. The first method on the list advised to go into an isolated place and let your frustration out with the worst curses you know.
More recently, I posted this Quote from Mark Twain, emphasizing the same notion. The great writer, who found humor even in the rumors about his death, also found solace in profanity.
Whether consciously or subconsciously, everyone recognizes the power of cursing. We use it far more frequently as an expression of physical pain, anguish, anger, and frustration, than as a deriding instrument. People curse at themselves, at their lives' circumstances, at the damned table corner always in the way. Most of the time they do it when they are completely alone and nobody can hear them. They do it because it is an intuitive tension-release mechanism.
Case in point – Oscar-nominated The King's Speech, based on a true story. Prince Albert (always fantastic Colin Firth), had a speech impediment caused by multiple childhood psychological traumas. Because of his position, the future King George VI was in the public view and, through the popularization of the radio, in the public ear – stammering and all. It made him an object of ridicule even before the abdication of his older brother David pushed him into the throne of British Empire.
For many years he sought help of different doctors and linguistic practitioners. Finally, he meets Lionel Logue (even more fantastic Geoffrey Rush). This unorthodox, way-ahead-of-his-time speech therapist worked with post-traumatic WWI veterans and understood that acquired defects are psychological in their roots and have to do with fear and tension.
Mr. Logue takes on the Royal patient. His methods are designed to remove the stress that causes his charge to stumble over the words. He has a lot of tricks up his sleeve: breathing, exercising, singing and, of course, cursing are all used as means of frustration release. The movie wonderfully shows how the speech center in His Majesty's brain has much easier time dealing with difficult sentences after the fear rides out on those few "dirty" words. Thus, it illustrates my point that if you find yourself chocking with anxiety, profanity helps.
Sadly and ridiculously those few oaths caused the movie to be rated R. I mean, 13-year-olds, can hear more curse words on their way to school. Now, the entertainment media talks about the Weinstein brothers deciding to cut those therapeutic outbursts out in order to "re-introduce" The Kings Speech with PG-13 rating. I have no clue why they want to do that. The movie has already grossed nearly 900% of its budget. Some people say that it will not take anything away from the story, but I strongly disagree. It is an integral part of keeping yourself functional in this stressful life – for a king, a writer, or a CFO.
The Frustrated CFO 