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Cool Steve’s Puzzled When Blacks Use N-Word

by Jeffrey Rubin, PhD

Welcome to From Insults To Respect. Today, let’s consider a story in which the N-word gets used in a couple of very different ways. A Rough Basketball Game May, 1965.             “Wandering around the Coney Island area a few blocks from the amusement parks, 15-year old Steve and his nine-year old brother, Pete, spots some guys about his age playing basketball.             As they come closer, they…

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Cool Steve Confronts Poverty

by Jeffrey Rubin, PhD

Welcome to From Insults To Respect. When thirteen-year old Cool Steve’s parents no longer can afford the rent where they had been living, they move to a less expensive, run down apartment. Steve has to start a new junior high school even though it’s the middle of a school year. Let’s see if we can learn something when we see how Steve handles his first day…

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Respect and Tolerance

by Jeffrey Rubin, PhD

Welcome to From Insults to Respect. As the title of this blog indicates, here we are interested in respect. The topic of respect is quite broad, and for a fairly complete coverage of its different definitions I recommend the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s article on respect that can be retrieved for free HERE. The article covers not only the different meanings of the respect concept, it…

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Bob Dylan On Mothers

by Jeffrey Rubin, PhD

Welcome to From Insults to Respect. I hope you all are all having a splendid week, especially you mothers out there for my calendar indicates Mother’s Day is just around the corner. Regular readers of this blog well know that from time to time I like to utilize aspects of Bob Dylan’s entertaining show, Theme Time Radio Hour, to highlight some important issues regarding the nature of…

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Why Was William James Respected?

by Jeffrey Rubin, PhD

Welcome to From Insults To Respect. Here on this blog, I aim to shed light upon how folks might improve their self-respect and the respect others have for them. With this end in mind, from time to time I describe someone who has handled a difficult situation in a respect enhancing manner. For example, in one post I describe how Abraham Lincoln skillfully handled insults (see…

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Bob Dylan On Walking

by Jeffrey Rubin, PhD

Welcome to From Insults to Respect.  On this blog, we have been exploring the various characteristics that help people earn self-respect and respect from others. Today we focus on one of these–staying in physical and emotional shape by taking a daily walk. It is, of course, true enough that some good people have earned an enormous amount of respect even without bothering to stay fit, but let’s…

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Is Viewing Someone As Acting Immature Insulting?

Welcome to From Insults To Respect.  As someone with considerable training in developmental psychology, I sometimes view certain styles of behavior on a scale ranging from immature to mature. When I do that, might I be insulting those who I view as acting immature? For those of you, who like me, prefer not to insult anyone, I invite you to join me in considering this question….

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Trump and Respect

An Exercise for Deepening One's Understanding of the Nature of Respect

Welcome to From Insults to Respect. As I write this post, Election Day, with all of its turbulence, has now passed us by. Perhaps now is a good time for us to take some deep calming breaths and reflect on all that transpired. Along this line, I’m thinking it would be a useful exercise at this point if we attempted to integrate what we have learned…

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Learning About Respect Through Baseball

Welcome to From Insults To Respect.  My last post, Baseball and Respect, aimed to provide keen insights about the nature of respect, insights that are relevant way beyond the world of baseball. To this end, we looked at the reasons some players and fans have given for singling out ballplayers they particularly respect. As I was getting ready to finish that post, I felt frustrated because I had…

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Baseball and Respect

by Jeffrey Rubin, PhD

Welcome to From Insults to Respect. The game of baseball offers us a unique look at the nature of respect for two reasons. First, the game provides several unusually objective statistics that give us a pretty good idea of the talent of a player. In many other fields, such as art or teaching, the criteria for talent is far less objective. Second, we find that despite…

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