Attention Seeking - Perguntar não ofende

Adam Phillips on 'Attention Seeking'

Q: Is criticism always shaming or does it have a useful function?

A: We're encouraged to believe that we should be good at taking criticism. That's a really impressive thing to be able to do. It certainly isn't my experience. I'd much rather be praised. Occasionally people say critical things that engage me and I'm struck by them, but I often feel got at. Now... that's me... I'm not saying that that's true to all of us (laughter). But I do think that there's something, that the risk is that criticism becomes the wish to shame. On one end there's a wish to modify, or a genuine question, and on the other end there's a wish to humiliate and it would seem to me much better if we stopped humiliating people and start asking them questions.


"The object is defined by the distractions to which it leads".
Devorah Baum