The Outrage Cure: How Overcoming Anger Can Transform the Way We Live, Connect and Heal

by Alika Lafontaine M.D.

From an award-winning physician, health innovator, and former head of the Canadian Medical Association, a groundbreaking book that is both an examination of how anger evolves and outrage takes hold when we lose the belief that change is possible and a guide to how we find our way back, individually and together

If you’re holding this book, there’s a good chance something in your life isn’t sitting right. Maybe you’ve been carrying frustration that’s hard to explain, or watching someone close to you slowly drift into anger. Maybe conversations that used to feel easy now feel tense, or distant. You might feel like you’re walking on eggshells. Or maybe you’re the one others have started walking around. You may not call it outrage, but there is a rising sense that something important has been lost. Like trust. Even hope. If any of that feels familiar, you’re not alone. And you’re not wrong for feeling it.

Drawing from decades of personal and professional experiences, The Outrage Cure reveals how outrage distorts how we see the people around us, the systems we work in, and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are. The Outrage Cure doesn’t ask you to stop caring. It doesn’t ask you to stop being angry. Instead it asks practical What happens when anger stops moving us forward? What do we do when outrage, once a response to harm, becomes the harm itself? In answering these questions, it invites you to examine what we’re carrying, how it’s shaping us, and what it might take to put it down. The world may deserve your outrage. But you deserve more than what it leaves you with.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Psychology, Canada

304 pages, Hardcover

Published April 28, 2026

Reviews

[Paul Sutter]

It is almost impossible not to get upset by something. They have often said to “shake it off” if something bothers you, but saying and doing are on opposite ends of the spectrum. In the book THE OUTRAGE CURE (How Overcoming Anger And Betrayal Can Transform The Way We Live, Connect, And Heal), the author takes us on a fascinating and informative journey through the world of anger, and tells us to navigate past it and live our lives without continuing to harbor the pain indefinitely. Alika Lafontaine is a physician, and noted as one of Canada’s leading advocates for social change. He became the first Indigenous doctor and youngest physician to lead the Canadian Medical Association in its 156 year history. The book is quite personal to the author on many fronts. It details the falling out with Tom, one of Lafontaine’s best friends, looking at how anger and rage can be fatal for friendships, and carrying those emotions past the point of no return.
People cannot help get angry over something. It goes with the territory of life, but it is how we handle this that defines us and affects us. The author notes, “As our anger simmers, our faith in each other falters. Then comes the silence, where we weave stories that justify the rapid erosion of empathy toward people we hold dear or relationships that give our life meaning.” He later adds that it is common for us to take our anger and outrage out on the wrong people. “This is not because they are guilty of the offenses that trigger us, but because they are near, accessible and safe.”
As we read this book, we can look inwardly at our own lives, and realize how we have handled angry situations against family, friends, and others we hold dearly in our lives. People have said we hold grudges against the world, but more often we hold them against ourselves, internalizing the pain, which can halt any form of resolution to others.
There are so many layers to this book, that each chapter offers a roadmap to change and transformation. It is written on a level that any reader can learn from and understand how anger and rage has caused rifts in their lives. Lafontaine concludes with, “You deserve more than what outrage gives you. And if you put it down, a world of possibilities will open up to you.” It truly will create a better environment for you and create more contentment in the people around you.

[Wayne Woodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was lukewarm at the beginning but then became more absorbed as I progressed. The title is accurate but the contents are much more than the cover. It is in essence an autobiography with a focus on anger and outrage and how these emotions can derail our lives.
The author at times can be a little too wordy for my liking but he does cover a very personal experience and helps us to find a way out of the toxic environment we now experience on a daily basis.