the most important theme is the amygdala’s dual role in both aggression and facets of fear and anxiety. Fear and aggression are not inevitably intertwined—not all fear causes aggression, and not all aggression is rooted in fear. Fear typically increases aggression only in those already prone to it; among the subordinate who lack the option of expressing aggression safely, fear does the opposite. The dissociation between fear and aggression is evident in violent psychopaths, who are the antithesis of fearful—both physiologically and subjectively they are less reactive to pain; their amygdalae
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