“Do not let arrogance go to your head and despair to your heart; do not let compliments go to your head and criticisms to your heart; do not let success go to your head and failure to your heart.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

Criticism is something that is seen in our everyday life, right from Infancy till now and beyond, criticism abounds. If not properly understood, criticism can fuel alot of negative attitudes and behaviours in different persons and why is that, we all react to things differently..

According to Wikipedia,there are over 18 types of criticism.. Many right? Yes! And the beautiful thing is that you would have enageged in one or the other of the different kinds of criticism there is and you wont have known. Well, let me list out all the varieties of criticism there are so you could get familiar with them..

1 Aesthetic criticism

2 Logical criticism

3 Factual criticism

4 Positive criticism

5 Negative criticism

6 Constructive criticism

7 Destructive criticism

8 Practical criticism

9 Theoretical criticism

10 Public and private criticism

11 Moral criticism

12 Scientific criticism

13 Religious criticism

14 Scholarly criticism

15 Critical criticism

16 Radical and revolutionary criticism

17 Conservative criticism

18 Liberal criticism

19 Speculative criticism

20 Foolish criticism

21 Professional criticism

22 Self-criticism

E.T.C…

Well, for the purpose of this article, would be looking at just two kinds of criticism..

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM..

 Constructive criticism is that which molds us,  which makes us better. This type of  criticism is rare. Yes! We want to make someone better, an effective way to criticize is to call attention to peoples mistakes indirectly.

DESTRUCTIVE CRITICISM

    Destructive criticism is that which aims to destroy and demoralise somebody..   We live in an age where almost everyone make destructive criticism, their aim is to make you better but they are destroying you Unknowingly.  It takes strong minds to overcome criticism. Bitter criticism caused the sensitive Thomas Hardy,  one of the finest novelists ever to enrich English literature, to give up forever the writing of fiction. Criticism drove Thomas chatterton the English poet to suicide, these few examples are snippets of how dangerous destructive criticism can be..

  When dealing with people let’s realize we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotions, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity_ Dale Carnegie.
     Criticism is like homing pigeons, they always return home. When we criticize people, they would always justify themselves and condemn you. Destructive criticism makes us lose friends because they will condemn us,  when we criticize them. Before we criticize  let us put ourselves in their own shoes and see if we wouldn’t do what they do and even more. Let us understand them and try to figure out why they do what they do.
    Abraham Lincoln said ‘ Don’t judge them,  they are just what we  would do under similar circumstances ‘.  ‘Judge not that yet may not be judged’.
     Sharp criticism and rebukes almost invariably ends in futility. If you want to draw a person’s attention to their mistakes you have to correct them indirectly. Words are absorbed easily, It either heals Or wound

   Benjamin Franklin American ambassador to France said ‘ I will speak Ill  of no man and speak all the good I know of everybody’.
   Be hearty in your approbations and lavish in your praise. Criticism from superiors kills the ambition of a person. The best way to handle criticism is to let it not get to us, we take out the positive and trash the negative.
    Criticisms are everywhere,  we can’t avoid it,  we can only learn to handle it carefully.
   Most times  we criticize because we misunderstand people’s aim,  let us at least try to figure out why they do what they do.
  Hans selye,  a great psychologists said ‘As much as we thirst for approval,  we dread condemnation.

   The aim of this article is to bring you enlightenment and also for you to address where you might have been missing it and become a better criticist.. We didnt touch all of the varieites of criticism, in the next article, we would do just that.. Take care of you,Vera Harvey cares..