Grievance, Retaliation and Drugs?

I have always tried to steer clear of overtly political viewpoints. This is partially down to cowardice; a distaste for politics in general and the feeling that my own political predisposition is an idiosyncratic mish-mash of influences from my a) background (unusual); b) biology (strange); c) education (atypical); d) life-time experiences (varied) and e) people I have met or read. It's with some trepidation, that I comment on an article by James Kimmel jr, a Yale University Psychiatrist, who describes himself as a 'violence researcher' (https://www.politico.com/amp/news/magazine/2020/12/12/trump-grievance-addiction-444570). I was a 'violence researcher' myself for some 40 years, helped to edit the journal Aggressive Behavior and was a President of the International Society for Research on Aggression. Although I am actually more biological than James, I feel uncomfortable with the suggestion that one can treat the 'pleasure' of retaliating against political resentments, in the exactly the same way we attempt to deal with the effects of psychoactive drugs in an 'addict'. In a sense, this would be a medicalisation of political views, regarded (by some?) as irrational or inappropriate. Clearly, there may be similar impacts on the 'reward' centres of the brain (dopamine release, notably in the nucleus accumbens and the dorsal striatum). That reward centre is there for a very good reason. It generally facilitates the repeating of actions that can be beneficial. In many subjects, there would be a surge of dopamine if, they ate a good meal; their child did well in school, they baked an excellent cake or they had a good training session in sport. We only get worried when the rewarded behaviour is deemed 'bad' for the individual. This applies to a majority of recreational drugs (many societies make exceptions for 'legal' compounds), 'excessive' gambling et cetera. I appreciate that, for centuries, politicians have whipped up resentments to get elected and to carry 'their people' with them. It is very difficult, however, to clearly distinguish appropriate from inappropriate resentments. In fact, the same resentment might well be rational for one group but irrational for another. Appropriateness may also change with time. Kimmel makes an interesting point, when noting that environmental factors can stimulate the reward centre in creational drug users. They can, for example, show a surge of dopamine when they go to a location where they have previously taken drugs or they meet up with a known fellow user. I think that it is extremely likely that environmental factors play roles in group activities. Reward centres may well 'light up' when attending a political rally or spectating at a match (remember that?) involving 'your' sports team. Kimmel claims to have a system for diffusing resentments and retaliations. The real difficulty, however, would be getting people to admit that their views might possibly be inappropriate (it's often difficult enough to get drug addicts to agree to seek treatment). I really can't see the US undergoing the world's largest ever psychoanalytical session for about half its population (it would,anyhow, be wholly inappropriate to lump all the individuals who supported a particular candidate together). I don't think that are any circumstances where I would ever offer myself for an evaluation (and potential treatment of?) of my resentments. So, I can't imagine many other people opting for such treatment. I guess we will just have to hope that things calm down naturally. It would help if people didn't continue to throw petrol on the flames.