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Responding Maturely to Criticism: A New Example

by Dr Jeffrey Rubin

Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Regular readers know that I have been presenting the theory that a powerful way to increase the respect that others have for you, and the respect you have for yourself, is to become a master at responding to criticism. To that end, I have presented a model that describes five levels of maturity for responding to criticism (see HERE and…

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On Being Viewed As “Fat”

by Jeffrey Rubin, PhD

Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Recently, I’ve been reading about the trials and tribulations of being viewed as fat. For example, in a Psychology Today article titled “Is Your Child Being Teased About His Weight?” the author, Edward Abramson, Ph.D., tells us that, “Although the medical consequences of childhood obesity may not emerge until adulthood, the psychological effects are immediately present. Studies have shown that…

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On Being Called Gay

by Dr. Jeffrey Rubin

When I first started writing a blog about name calling, insults, and respect, the very first comment that I received was from a guy who called himself Richard from Colorado. “Even if you don’t think that your words hurt,” Richard wrote, “they can. I’m gay and struggling with it. I don’t want people to know yet, but it still hurts inside when someone says that’s…

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Bob Dylan On Fools

by Dr. Jeffrey Rubin

Bob Dylan begins his Theme Time Radio Hour show about fools, with a beautiful instrumental version of “Why Do Fools Fall In Love.” After a few bars of this tune, it continues in the background as Bob begins to speak: James Thurber once said, “You can fool too many of the people too much of the time,” and for the next hour we’re going to…

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Bob Dylan on Madness

As some of you may know, Bob Dylan has a show called “Theme Time Radio Hour.” As the title suggests, each episode is centered on a theme. He begins his episode on madness as follows: “Let me ask you a few questions, friends. Are you disinterested in work or family life? Do you suffer from sleep disruption? Have you had significant changes in appetite? Have…

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From Psychiatric Name Calling to Plain, Humane English

Many mental health service providers well know that there are serious problems with the jargon that is used in their profession.  In a recent post titled “Psychiatric Name Calling: Is It Time To Put A Stop To It?” I outline some of the most glaring ones.  In a subsequent post titled “Psychiatric Name Calling: Is There An Alternative?” I describe a plan for professionals who have…

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William James’s Personal Bout with a “Mental Disorder”

William James, psychologist and philosopher, passed away over a century ago.  Nevertheless, his remarkable body of work remains as fresh as fruit plucked from its tree but moments ago. His views about his personal bout with a challenging experience developed over many years.  Today I think it will be instructive if we spent a little time reviewing what he learned. A Glimpse at James’s Early…

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Psychiatric Name Calling: Is There An Alternative?

The publishers of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) currently hold a monopoly for classifying the concerns that lead people to seek mental health services. Recently on this blog, in a series of articles, I have been pointing out numerous faults of the DSM.  To check out some examples of these, see my posts titled Name Calling by Psychiatrists: Is it Time…

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Are “Mental Illnesses” Really Potentially Helpful Tools?

If your behavior, thoughts, or feelings become a concern, for a fee, many psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers are eager to translate your experiences into a language of symptoms, diagnoses, psychopathology, and mental illness. In an earlier post I provided negative criticism about this type of name-calling (see here).  Today, we focus in on an additional problem with the pathologizing approach. Psychiatric Name-Calling Simplistically Devalues…

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Einstein and Stupidity

by Dr Jeffrey Rubin

“Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not yet completely sure about the universe.”–Albert Einstein In the spring of 1914, Albert Einstein left his home in Switzerland to take a job at the University of Berlin in Germany’s capital. He was then, 35. He took the job with much misgivings.  When he was a young boy living in Germany, Einstein…

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