Crises come in red, yellow, or black.  An individual in a red crisis is angry.  He is really angry, he may be yelling, he feels the world is unjust, he is indignant, he declares that he will show them.  The person in a red crisis usually appears tense, ready to strike out, about to explode.  In other red crises, the individual may appear to be calm, but we can pick up the anger, frustration, and hurt from things he says, the way he describes situations, the kinds of things he is thinking about doing.  The individual may be clenching his fists or pounding on the arm of his chair.  You may notice that he is gritting his teeth or talking in a very angry, cutting tone.  Frequently, such a person sets off fearful feelings in us, and we find ourselves worried about the possibility that he might hurt someone or something.  For example, the parents of a young girl are divorced, and the girl is very upset.  She tells us, I called Daddy.  That woman answered the phone and said Daddy had taken her little girl swimming.  I hope she drowns.  I don’t ever want to see him again.  I hope he drowns, too.  I hate him!  [The little girl jams a pencil into the arm of her chair.]  I don’t care.  I don’t need a daddy, anyway.

The now potential of a red crisis is that the individual may act out his anger, really hurt someone else.  This now potential combines with the act that the extreme anger disables the individual and makes the self-resolution factor quite low.  In a red crisis then, our goal will be to reduce the now potential by softening the anger and allowing the individual to talk it out enough to begin to look at this feelings and at alternative ways of dealing with them.  As he begins to think and feel with us, the self-resolution factor will increase. …

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