Criticism is the judgement (using analysis and evaluation) of the merits and faults of the actions or work of another individual. Criticism can mean merely to evaluate without necessarily finding fault; however, usually the word implies the expression of disapproval.

The psychology of criticism

Criticism and narcissists

Vulnerability with their own self-esteem makes individuals with narcissistic personality disorder very sensitive to criticism or defeat. Although they may not show it outwardly, criticism may haunt them and leave them feeling humiliated, degraded, hollow, and empty. They may react with disdain, narcissistic rage, or defiant narcissistic personality disorder.

Narcissists are extremely sensitive to personal criticism and extremely critical of other people. They think they must be seen as perfect or superior or infallible or else they are worthless. There's no middle ground.

The narcissist is constantly on the lookout for slights. He is hypervigilant. He perceives every disagreement as criticism and every critical remark as complete and humiliating rejection: nothing short of a threat.

Criticism and paranoids

Individuals with paranoid personality disorder are often rigid, critical of others, although they have great difficulty accepting criticism themselves.

Criticism is the activity of judgement or informed interpretation. In literary and academic contexts, the term most frequently refers to literary criticism, art criticism, or other such fields, and to scholars' attempts to understand the aesthetic object in depth.

Contents

• 1 Sourced
  • 1.1 Film
  • 1.2 Comics
  • 1.3 Art
  • 1.4 Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
• 2 Unsourced
• 3 External links

Sourced

• I am bound by my own definition of criticism: a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world.
  • Matthew Arnold, Essays in Criticism, 1st Series, ‘The Function of Criticism at the Present Time.’

• Criticism, whatever may be its pretensions, never does more than to define the impression which is made upon it at a certain moment by a work wherein the writer himself noted the impression of the world which he received at a certain hour.
  • James Branch Cabell, in The Certain Hour (1916)

• Parodies and caricatures are the most penetrating of criticisms.
  • Aldous Huxley, Point Counter Point, Ch. 28.

• We must grant the artist his subject, his idea, his donné: our criticism is applied only to what he makes of it.
  • Henry James, The Art of Fiction, ‘Partial Portraits.’

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Tue Jun 29 08:03:41 2010