Tantrum

Tantrums are one of the most common forms of problematic behavior in young children but tend to decrease in frequency and intensity as the child gets older.[13] For a toddler, tantrums can be considered as normal, and even as gauges of developing strength of character.[14][15][16]

Child having a tantrum

While tantrums are sometimes seen as a predictor of future anti-social behaviour,[17] in another sense they are simply an age-appropriate sign of excessive frustration,[18] and will diminish over time given a calm and consistent handling.[19][20][21] Parental containment where a child cannot contain themself—rather than what the child is ostensibly demanding—may be what is really required.[22]

Selma Fraiberg warned against "too much pressure or forceful methods of control from the outside" in child-rearing: "if we turn every instance of pants changing, treasure hunting, napping, puddle wading and garbage distribution into a governmental crisis we can easily bring on fierce defiance, tantrums, and all the fireworks of revolt in the nursery".[23]

Some people who have developmental disorders such as autism, Asperger syndrome,[24][25] ADHD, and intellectual disability[26] could be more vulnerable to tantrums than others, although anyone experiencing brain damage (temporary or permanent) can suffer from tantrums.[27] Anyone may be prone to tantrums once in a while, regardless of gender or age.[28][29] However, a meltdown due to sensory overload (which even neurotypical children can experience) is not the same as a temper tantrum.[30]

Freud considered that the Wolf Man's development of temper tantrums was connected with his seduction by his sister: he became "discontented, irritable and violent, took offence on every possible occasion, and then flew into a rage and screamed like a savage".[31] Freud linked the tantrums to an unconscious need for punishment driven by feelings of guilt[32]—something which he thought could be generalised to many other cases of childhood tantrums.[33][34]

Heinz Kohut contended that tantrums were rages of anger,[35] caused by the thwarting of the infant's grandiose-exhibitionist core. The blow to the inflated self-image, when a child's wishes are (however justifiably) refused, creates fury because it strikes at the feeling of omnipotence.[36]

Jealousy over the birth of a sibling, and resulting aggression, may also provoke negativistic tantrums, as the effort at controlling the feelings overloads the child's system of self-regulation.[37][38]

Writer William Makepeace Thackeray claimed that in later life "you may tell a tantrum as far as you can see one, by the distressed and dissatisfied expression of its countenance—'Tantrumical', if we may term it so".[39]

Heinz Kohut contended that "the baby’s core is likely to contain a self-centred, grandiose-exhibitionist part", and that "tantrums at being frustrated thus represent narcissistic rages"[35] at the blow to the inflated self-image. With "a child confronted with some refusal ... regardless of its justifications, the refusal automatically provokes fury, since it offends his sense of omnipotence".[36]

The willingness of the celebrity to throw tantrums whenever thwarted to the least degree[40] is a kind of acquired situational narcissism[41] or tantrumical behavior.

If tantrums are shown by older people, they might often be signs of immaturity or a mental disability; and often autistic or ADHD meltdowns are incorrectly labelled tantrums. It can also occur in neurotypical people under extreme stress. [42]

• Acting out
• Running amok
• Philippic (tirade, orations)

• The dictionary definition of tantrum at Wiktionary