Hi,
I have enjoyed being on the Nikon Rumors Forum and thought I would throw out a few comments and allow others to shoot at the comments. In a search, no clear evidence of the psychological aspects of criticism were noted. So, I am venturing out on this thread.
The first premise is that we only comment on another's work from our own knowledge/experiential base. No one has some superhuman ability to judge. No one.
Second premise: We tend to project onto the outside world our own psychological issues. In a general way, the things that we find upsetting in the world are reflecting those characteristics inside of us which we find unacceptable.
Third premise: Our psychological make up will prevent us from understanding much about what really goes on inside our heads. In other words, most of us do not have a lot of insight into what makes us tick.
Fourth premise: Denial is the most common psychological defense used and thus makes it sometimes very difficult to convince others we are absolutely correct, ha, ha, ha! Both the criticizer and the criticizee have this!
Fifth premise: Our feelings get hurt a lot, even though the fourth premise will sometimes not allow us to say so.
Sixth premise: In almost every case, conflicts arise out of our own thinking and behaviors.
If anyone is still hanging on here, and may have printed this out, just keep it in your pocket and when someone makes a comment or judges your work, read the list above and understand the criticism may not be so much about your work as about the difficulties the other person has. Then, without getting too upset, rethink what has been said. Use the information as best you can and possibly learn something. We cannot learn much without the input of others.
I post a lot of photos on the Photo-A-Day. Some i think are actually in the good category. A heck of a lot are average and some are most likely really poor. Unfortunately, from time to time, most of us have difficulty in recognizing the really poor ones we produce. And this is when we are so dependent on the input of others.
The above paradigm for critical comments is based on my having treated about 10,000 psychiatric patients and having testified as an expert in many capital murder trials. It is not just "out of the blue."
Hope at least someone finds this helpful.
