Talk:Self-criticism

I know the current article is a stub but even with that in mind most of what is there is mostly opinion, of little worth, poorly phrased, unreferenced, and does Wikipedia no favours. I am deleting the following:

Some political or religious cults also promote "self-criticism sessions" but these are more in the nature of a (possibly guilt-laden) "confession" or forced acknowledgment that one has made a mistake.

However, if the self-criticism is "artificial" or forced, it is less likely to lead to correcting one's own mistakes, or to learning what ought to be learnt.

"If one is incapable of criticizing oneself at all, this can lead to a false sense of confidence. But if one is too self-critical, this may be mentally or emotionally paralysing, and destroy the confidence or certainty necessary to take the actions that will correct previous mistakes." and making some minor literary changes. 82.43.195.131 19:03, 8 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Agreed. In fact the whole introductory paragraph should be deleted or thoroughly rewritten. I can not do the latter, not being an academic.
 * Surely "self-criticism" and "self-knowledge" are cognate in meaning, if not in origin. Janosabel (talk) 20:59, 7 May 2024 (UTC)

Room For Improvment
This article could be improved by having more sources that are cited and cited sources that were used but not cited. It could also be improved by taking a more neutral stance than only having a one sided perspective. AshleyHarper101 (talk) 07:03, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

Communist Section?
The section on communism in this page seems out of place, and contains almost entirely unsourced claims. Self-criticism may be a part of communist ideology but debating communist history is something that belongs on a different page. It should be either re-worked entirely or removed. Brighamhb (talk) 04:04, 21 May 2017 (UTC)
 * This section is describing a real phenomenon, but I agree it should probably be in a separate article. Perhaps self-criticism (communism), or just merged into struggle session (which seems to be a Chinese variant of basically the same thing). Robofish (talk) 15:09, 7 October 2017 (UTC)
 * This should unquestionably have its own page. Framing an integral part of a political ideology espoused by hundreds of millions of people as akin to mental illness is insulting. Moreover, the sly introduction of a huge blurb about the CIA-run Khmer Rouge is pejorative on its face. Pol Pot was America's puppet. 76.70.118.211 (talk) 23:18, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

Under Khmer Rouge

 * 'Under the Khmer Rouge, self-criticism sessions were known as rien sot, meaning "religious education". In his memoir The Gate, François Bizot recalls observing the Khmer Rouge engaging in frequent self-criticism to reinforce group cohesion during his imprisonment in rural Cambodia in 1971.'

The term "rien sot" («រៀនសុទ្ធ») literally means "pure learning" or "pure education". Can someone who has access to the source verify? — Nearly Headless Nick   {c}  21:23, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

Always a negative thing?
Isn't the "opposite" (the word the article uses) of being self-critical being arrogant and irrationally self-assured, not just having "a coherent, comprehensive, and generally positive self-identity"? Sometimes you really are the problem and you need to change your behavior. "Self-criticism", a term which just as readily evokes rational, constructive self-evaluation, seems like a misnomer for something that is defined as pathological, maladaptive, and irrational. Is this really the only usage of the term? WP Ludicer (talk) 08:16, 4 August 2023 (UTC)


 * No, the term is also commonly used to refer to critical thinking. I shall expand the hatnote. Does critical thinking fully cover this topic? I don't think so. Worst case scenario, someone with a degree might write a book advocating in favour of irrational self-criticism. Lucky for us, most humanities majors would find such an idea way too anti-social to entertain it. But if it turns out that someone has entertained this idea before, then we would be forced to write an actual article. And that would be terribly annoying. We'd probably have to create the world's worst disambiguation page.


 * Furthermore, readers who are expecting to read about positive self-criticism probably aren't going to be satisfied by the critical thinking article. So really, my partial solution is actually no solution whatsoever.


 * Dieknon (talk) 01:42, 20 August 2023 (UTC)