“Anger is a call for help. Outrage is what happens when no one answers.”

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— The Outrage Cure

A map for the emotional territory we’re all living in. Available from HarperCollins everywhere books are sold.

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Why everything feels broken — and what it's actually costing us

We've all watched it happen. A friendship destroyed by a single conversation. A workplace hollowed out by mistrust. A country stuck between people who are furious and people who've stopped caring entirely.

The Outrage Cure maps the emotional progression underneath it all — from the first experience of loss, through anger that goes unanswered, to outrage that consumes everything in its path. And it names the state no one is talking about: indifference, the quiet withdrawal that comes when people stop believing anything will change.

This isn’t a book about calming down. It’s a diagnostic. It gives you the map to understand what’s happening inside yourself and the people around you — so you can respond before the cost becomes permanent.

The Framework

  • Anger is a call for help.

    We reach out to the people around us because we believe they can help solve our problems. Anger is healthy, necessary, and legible — as long as someone responds. When it goes unanswered, it doesn't go away. It transforms.

  • Outrage is a call for reform.

    When we reach out and no one reaches back, we lose trust in the people who were supposed to help. We stop asking for solutions and start demanding consequences — expose, punish, replace.

  • Indifference is the belief nothing will ever change.

    People stop engaging, stop advocating, stop believing anyone is listening. This is where we lose them — not to anger, not to outrage, but to a belief that nothing they do will ever make a difference.

What this Book will help you do

  • A framework for understanding why single conversations destroy relationships that took decades to build

  • The ability to recognize when outrage has been weaponized against you — in the news, in your workplace, in your community

  • Language for the stage no one is talking about: the indifference that settles in when people stop believing anything will change

  • A practical path back to people and causes you’ve distanced yourself from

  • Tools for leading teams and organizations through cycles of anger and mistrust

What People Are Saying

  • "Most of us have experienced the challenge of anger in our lives. Seen how it disrupts, how it affects relationships. We try to deal with it and move on, but the scars often linger. What we rarely do is try to understand why—why do anger and outrage happen in the first place, where do they come from, and how do we best confront them? My friend, Dr. Alika Lafontaine, is no different than the rest of us, and in The Outrage Cure he's brutally honest about how anger has affected his life and what he's doing about it."

    — Peter Mansbridge

  • "If you've had a falling out with a family member or friend, or you know someone who has, The Outrage Cure is the one book you must read. With incredible courage and integrity, Dr. Alika Lafontaine explores the anger that ruptured the bond he had with his closest friend and shows us how we might reclaim lost bonds by reclaiming our better selves."

    — Dr. Brian Goldman, author of The Casino Shift

  • "Dr. Lafontaine has spent his career caring for others in a Canadian healthcare system that is on fire. In his new book, he tackles the root causes of so much of our discontent - outrage, what it looks like, what it feels like and how to overcome it. He explains what it is biologically and how Canadians need to put aside outrage in order to build the just society we all seek. This is an honest explanation of what anger is and how we need to work through it for the health of ourselves, homes and nations."

    —Tanya Talaga, bestselling author of The Knowing

  • "In a world boiling over with rampant anger, escalating outrage, political division, and indifference for others, The Outrage Cure is a balm for the soul. With wisdom-filled stories, ranging from the deeply personal to societal in breadth, Alika Lafontaine reminds us that when we’re consumed by rage, we forsake key elements of building a better life, and a better world—clarity, courage, connection, and love."

    —André Picard, Health columnist, The Globe and Mail, and author of Neglected No More

Continue the conversation

the outrage cure - substack

The book maps the territory. The Outrage Cure Substack is where we navigate it together.

Every week, the book’s framework applied to what’s actually happening in the world — in politics, healthcare, relationships, and the systems we depend on. For readers who want to explore what’s past outrage.

Alika Lafontaine

Dr. Alika Lafontaine

Alika Lafontaine is a physician, the first Indigenous president of the Canadian Medical Association, and a national voice on leadership, trust, and institutional failure.

The Outrage Cure grew out of two decades at the intersection of frontline medicine, organizational governance, advocacy, and a broken friendship that forced him to examine how anger transforms when it goes unanswered — in relationships, in institutions, and in the body itself.

Learn more about Alika