Something which I always found surprising when I attended the Kingdom Halls I studied was how angry, even vicious, many Jehovah's Witnesses could become when a Watchtower Study featured some persons and/or institutions the organization disapproved of, say, higher education and educators, Christendom and its clergy, apostates, etc. Many seemed to sadistically enjoy denigrating these persons or institutions when the Watchtower Study Conductor called on them and they were handed a microphone. I wondered for a long time where this anger came from, and I've developed a hypothesis for explaining this.
According to a book I'm reading by Alice Miller called "For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence," children who are strictly controlled and abused (whether emotionally or physically) typically go on to unleash the anger they inevitably felt at their parents, but were never allowed to express, at their children or those around them. In part children cannot express this anger and it remains unconscious because they were taught to perceive their parents as "loving" and as such it was unthinkable to become angry at their parents no matter what cruelty they inflicted upon them. Adults, she argues, have a greater capacity to feel and/or express anger at those who abuse them because, being adults, they can more easily resist or process what's being done to them and deem it or the persons responsible wrong, evil, unethical, etc.
Consider this: although many Jehovah's Witnesses are in fact adults, like children, Jehovah's Witnesses are not permitted to question the Governing Body and its pervasive attempts to micro-manage their lives and deny them natural pleasures (sex, relaxation, interpersonal connection, love, acceptance, respect, community). Instead, the organization tells Jehovah's Witnesses that the Governing Body is composed of "loving," well-intentioned men who want nothing but the best for them. Jehovah's Witnesses are certainly not allowed to criticize the Governing Body and, if such criticism is detected whether in the public or private sphere, the organization instructs Jehovah's Witnesses to shun and shame them. As such, I propose that many Jehovah's Witnesses will unconsciously experience anger at the Governing Body's micro-management and rather disturbing efforts to control and corral them but will not be able to experience their anger and direct it at the true source of their pain and suffering: the Governing Body, not Christendom, not educators, not apostates. But, of course, these entities make excellent scapegoats upon which Jehovah's Witnesses heap the anger they should feel towards the Governing Body. My conclusions seem confirmed by the fact that many ex-Witnesses on this site express or have expressed, quite naturally and understandably, anger at the Governing Body.
My hypothesis, then, is this: I believe the anger and viciousness I saw Jehovah's Witnesses express in many Watchtower Studies were expressions of the unconscious anger many inevitably felt and doubtlessly still feel about being denied what they naturally want by the Governing Body, what they ought and deserve to have: love, respect, acceptance, sexual pleasure, community, and so much more.