A Guide To Anger And Conflict Resolution
Welcome to From Insults to Respect. For those of us who seek to be respected, increasing our wisdom offers a promising path. In thinking about this, I recall a paragraph by John Stewart Mill: “In the case of any person whose judgment is really deserving of confidence, how has it become so? Because he has kept his mind open to criticism of his opinions and conduct….
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Our topic today–conceit. If you are seeking to be respected, actions by you that suggest to others that you are conceited are probably not helpful. To increase your motivation to change such behaviors, listening to Bob Dylan’s emotionally powerful song, “Disease of Conceit,” just might help. The song appears on Bob’s 1989 album, Oh Mercy. The first verse tells us,…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. In my last post, I made the following argument: Supporters of Kamala Harris would be wise to seek to make friends with Trump supporters rather than to demean them. Here’s my approach for doing this. I explain to his supporters that I get why they are awfully angry about such things as the prices at the supermarket and the…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Kamala Harris has agreed to debate Donald Trump on September 10th. I get why politically she feels she needs to agree to it–she doesn’t want to look like she’s afraid of him. Nevertheless, if I was in her place, I would have rejected the proposal because Trump, at these events, does not debate. Yes, he shows up at these events…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. As you no doubt know, a wide variety of people are being classified as having ADHD and prescribed psychiatric drugs. The pharmaceutical industry, with its enormous wealth, promotes the use of these drugs. Supporters of this drug approach often cast a disrespectful eye toward their critics while arguing that research supports their position. Meanwhile, a large group of scientific…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Those who experience what is sometimes referred to as a nervous breakdown can receive a great many insults as their behavior begins to annoy. The Rolling Stones’s hit “19th Nervous Breakdown” insightfully explores this issue. The lyrics begin, You’re the kind of person you meet at certain dismal, dull affairs Center of a crowd, talking much too loud, running up…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. My previous post utilizes the Kinks song “Low Budget” to sympathetically discuss how our money woes can take a bite out of our feelings of respect for ourselves and others, while suggesting some helpful approaches to deal effectively with such challenges. The positive feedback that I received led me to see if I might utilize another Kinks song, partly…
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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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