The vast gap between venting and admittance, and the mere sliver of understanding that separates them

I recently read this, and while I thoroughly enjoyed the read, I was also struck almost as much by one
little detail as I was by the entirety of the article:

The sentence "venting is good for you."

Venting your anger, venting your frustration, venting your annoyance and whatever it may be is almost unanimously hailed as something positive in our society as a whole. And why shouldn't it? Admitting something you've been carrying around with you -- pent up feelings, anger, frustration, sorrow, and negative feelings in general -- is generally lauded as a wholly positive thing by therapists everywhere. In fact,
I've even heard therapists called this process venting themselves, that is the extent to which this concept has spread; but how none of these people -- all these well-educated, smart, learned people -- don't see anything wrong with it even though there is.

There is certainly something to be said for venting. It *does* some times aid people in admitting things they otherwise wouldn't, it *does* make people feel better afterwards, and it *does* have the potential to change people's mindset as a result of it. However, these are also the same exact things that make venting a problem:

Imagine you're having a bad day. The world is against you, all your co-workers or fellow students are being complete idiots, and everyone should certainly be seeing that they are wrong and you are right. Although you usually don't do anything of the sort, you go all out and vent. You punch the couch, some pillows and the wall; you mutter a bit about how and why everyone else is wrong and you're right; you swear, even if you usually never would; hell, you even scream at the top of your lungs for a bit before you slump down
into the couch you just punched. And then you feel a bit better than you did before? You feel more certain than ever that you're right and they're wrong. You might feel a bit hollow, but at least you feel different, and that's good, right?

Something is wrong with this picture. Ask any behaviourist, and they would tell you that this scenario reinforces the use of anger, and to some degree even the use of violence to solve problems. Now, I'm not saying that venting makes everyone likely to punch someone they don't agree with in the gut, but it certainly makes the road to anger shorter. It becomes a simple tool you can use to get a reaction much like pepper spray has become the first tool many police officers in the US reach for in the face of resistance. Moreover, this process often reinforces only your own view of discussion, only lessening the potential for agreement in any future arguments with your counterparts.

Telling someone in need of perspective that venting is good is like telling an introvert that they should cross their arms and shut themselves in because it makes them feel better there and then, rather than encouraging them to face their problem head on and go through a process of opening up to others. This option might be more uncomfortable, but most everyone would agree that it is the option which yields the best results.

Maybe we should all take a lesson from parents in this case: when you see a friend, co-worker, family member or other fellow human being going through a rough patch or sitting down on their hind legs, encourage them to go out and play. If only more people associated  self-evaluation and challenging their own world views with positive experiences, the world would most certainly be a more tolerant, peaceful place to reside.

Now go out to play and spread some tolerance.