The classic defensive maneuver is classic because it’s an automatic reaction many, if not most, people have when their work is criticised. It’s only those who have more self-awareness than usual or who have discovered that reacting this way does no good at all, and, in fact, often causes us to act in ways that when seen with hindsight are downright embarrassing, or, at the least, make us appear rather immature and inexperienced. The classic defensive maneuver seems absolutely right to the person offended by the opinion that causes the reaction.  When in the grip of it, the sufferer sees nothing other than their own perspective, a perspective created by one single aim: to prove that one’s work is not as the critic says it is. When in the grip of the classic defensive manoeuvre we must, at all costs, retain our sense that the art work we have laboured over is perfect. If others criticise it, it’s because they don’t understand, not that we’ve failed to create something people can … [Read more...]