A Guide To Anger And Conflict Resolution
Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Empathy, as we have been lately discussing (see HERE and HERE), is crucial for being respected by your friends, coworkers, and community. And fostering empathy in our kids is crucial if we desire that they will grow up with integrity and honor. Several suggestions have been made in my earlier posts on how best to foster this set of skills,…
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In an earlier post titled, “Empathy, Kindness, and Maturity,” I heaped praise on empathy. There I spoke about a dog who had recently passed away, and how my empathy helped the owner through his anguish. Further, I presented arguments that empathy motivates individual behavior that aids in solving communal challenges. Since writing that post, I learned of a study by Sidney Blatt and his colleagues…
Read MoreIt was way back in 1972 on a pleasant autumn day. As I stepped out of the sparkling sunshine into the shadowy confines of the Coney Island Child Psychiatric Clinic, I was greeted by three people who could have been movie actors. One was a beautiful social worker in her late twenties, with flowing brunette hair; another, a tall, handsome psychologist in his early thirties;…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Regular visitors know that on this blog, we often find suggestions for improving our stress management skills. The evidence supporting learning these skills includes studies demonstrating that prolonged stress is related to adverse psychological and physical health effects, as well as an increased risk of premature mortality (See Keller, et al., 2012 for a review of this evidence). Other studies indicate that not…
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William James (1842-1910) became one of the leading thinkers of his day, and through his writings he remains one of the most influential psychologists and philosophers the United States has ever produced. There is a certain wisdom and kindness that runs through his work that I particularly admire. So, in an earlier post when I wanted to come up with ideas on how parents can best…
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Raising kids is one of the more challenging responsibilities that many of us take on in our lives. I know this from personal experience. My wife and I raised two rambunctious boys, and I’d be lying if I claimed I never once lost my temper. I remember one particular incident when one of our boys was about ten. I had a pretty rough day at work,…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. This week we are going to see if there is a more respectful way to view people said to have ADHD than the unjustified names in common use. In an article published in Science Daily, Professor Anita Thapar, referring to a study she is a coauthor of, is quoted as saying, “Now we can say with confidence that ADHD is a genetic disease.”…
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Welcome back to From Insults to Respect. As most of you know, controversy flared upon the announcement that Bob Dylan was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature. Some heatedly argued there are others more worthy of the prize. In this vein, a guy named Rob Delany tweeted: “Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize for Literature? What’s next, Derek Jeter wins a Tony for his…
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At 39-years of age, Ron had been a respected employee in a department store for nearly ten years. If he had made it to ten full years, he would have qualified for some extra benefits. Upper management chose to replace him with someone new a week before the ten years were up. Discovering that landing a new job was leading to one rejection after another, Ron…
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In an article titled “The Roots of Mental Illness,” the author, Kirsten Weir, tells us about Eric Kandel, MD, who believes that the experiences that doctors refer to as mental illnesses are brain diseases. Dr. Kandel defends his belief with the following statement: “All mental processes are brain processes, and therefore all disorders of mental functioning are biological diseases. The brain is the organ of the…
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