I'm pleased to see your emotionally intelligent expression of empathy. This essay and a few others I have seen are flowers among the too many weeds of opportunistic rushes to judgment that I have seen on the platform and in the media. People are judging him for the slap. People are judging him for an inadequate apology. His emotional state was probably already charged being up for the award. Then I see that before he reacted with anger he first laughed at the joke, which was quite funny, until he saw Jada's reaction. Then I imagine he felt guilt and shame (likely as you point exacerbated by his mother's history that you mentioned here). I can't help but wonder to what extent the anger that he took out on Rock was actually anger with himself projected upon Rock. I say give the man time to reflect, however long that may take.