A Guide To Anger And Conflict Resolution
Welcome to From Insults to Respect. This week, I spent an evening listening to some of my favorite songs from the Kinks, a British rock band that had several great hits beginning in the mid-1960s. Brothers Ray Davies (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and Dave Davies (lead guitar, vocals) remained members throughout the group’s 32-year run. One of the songs, “Low Budget,” released in 1979 when inflation…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. My last couple of blog posts see (HERE & HERE) explored why criticism often leads to defensiveness. Shortly after I published these, one of my readers, Bob Parker, PhD, responded with an email saying, “I liked your blog post a lot. It rings very true. I think a fine line exists between defensive reactions and introspection in this case….
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. In my last blog post, we discussed how criticism often leads to an angry conflict related to the desire to be liked. We now turn to another reason why criticism often leads to a conflict — the desire to maintain freedom. Back in 1966, psychologist Jack W. Brehm published a remarkable book entitled, A Theory of Psychological Reactance. In…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. When someone provides criticism anger often ensues. The above comic offers us a fine example. Why is Sally getting so angry over her brother’s comment? Could it have to do with the desire to be liked and loved? For many of us, not being liked or loved is the worst thing imaginable. When you’re around someone who likes you, oftentimes that…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Today, we discuss Donald Trump and his supporters taking cheap shots seeking to blame President Biden for inflation. They are doing this despite the overwhelming evidence that countries around the world, regardless of whether they are led by very conservative or liberal governments, have been experiencing inflation. Moreover, it is factually undeniable that the annual inflation rates for dozens and dozens…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Regular readers to this blog know that I have some serious concerns about dealing with emotional experiences referred to as depression or melancholy with the so called antidepressants. Certainly, people should be free to make their own decision regarding whether or not to take these types of pills, and I recognize very intelligent people decide to take them. That said, because…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. In today’s world, if you are experiencing melancholy or depression, the pharmaceutical industry very much wants to sell you on the idea that you have an abnormal condition that is deemed an illness. You would think with the popularity of the blues type of music, periods of bluesy feelings would be viewed as normal as trees in a forest;…
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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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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. For many of us who have endured a brutally hot summer, the approaching of autumn sure is a welcome. This past weekend, I happened to be checking out some stuff on YouTube and came upon a wonderful version of the song, “Melancholy Mood,” sung, believe it or not, by Bob Dylan. The amazingly prolific song writer and musical…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Today, we take a look at the question, Can psychologists come up with a kinder, more respectful, healthier approach for dealing with the types of concerns people seek mental health services? The current approach, often referred to as the “medical model” or the “mental disorder model,” is promoted by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the World Health Organization (WHO)…
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