Chamroeun’s tantrum, the moment he becomes angry at himself until he literally falls from the table, is not simply an “accident,” not simply a chaotic dramatic scene to laugh at or to scold — it is actually a living demonstration of how early emotional energy can take full physical control of a young primate’s body, mind, and balance. When anger rises inside a small developing brain, the rational part shuts down first. The reasoning circuits that evaluate danger, edge-distance, stability, safe posture — they are not working during the peak of emotional explosion. This is why the tantrum transforms into physical collapse. The body becomes a storm instead of a structure. So when Chamroeun gets angry at himself — maybe because he failed to grab something, maybe he bit himself, maybe he got frustrated at a bottle or a toy — that anger travels through his body like electrical fire, and equilibrium becomes secondary. The table edge suddenly becomes an invisible line. The fall becomes inevitable.
This is especially true in rescued or stressed infant monkeys — they tend to internalize frustration instead of releasing it with gentle comfort. They throw their entire weight forward, backward, sideways, without calculating consequences. The tantrum is not staged performance, it is instinctive self-punishment behavior. Many orphaned primates do this: they scream inward, bite their own arms, roll their bodies, strike the floor — it is emotional discharge. So Chamroeun falling from the table is a communication of how badly his nervous system needs regulation, not punishment.
At this age, caregivers must remember something very important: discipline is not the first tool — safety is the first tool. After a fall, the priority is not to argue or shame, but to stabilize, hold gently, calm breathing, reduce the adrenaline surge, and convert the emotional energy into a slower rhythm. The lesson comes later. When the body is safe, the mind can learn.
When Chamroeun regains calmness, that is the moment to introduce structure: keeping him lower to the ground, building routine predictability, offering soft boundaries, teaching that frustration can be tolerated without self-attack. Over time, with repetitive gentle correction, the tantrums will reduce, and the falls will become rare — because he will learn that the world does not collapse every time his emotions rise.
