Bluntly

Sense: A fictional short-short story

A Word With Marty: "PRAISE"

StuporHeroes Parables, Episode 4: Tom Lift

My Self-Portrait: A short-short story

How Honest Am I?

A Confrontive Career Coach

Radical Honesty’s Limits

A recent post made the case for radical honesty,  and a follow-up addressed reader yes-buts.  My Medium.com article today discuses, with ample examples, radical honesty’s limits.

Radical Honesty, Applied: 2 personal and 3 professional examples.

A recent post made the case for radical honesty: that to get what we want, we too often succumb to deception and out-and-out lying.

A skeptical reader provided two personal and three professional examples of where he felt radical honesty was unrealistic. My Psychology Today article today offers examples of how it might be applied in situations when it would seem undesirable or unrealistic.

The Case for Radical Honesty: Our world is too filled with hype, veneer, and phony niceness

 That's my Psychology Today article today.

Honesty’s Limits: 5 gray-area situations

Many of us cut our honesty teeth on the apocryphal tale of George Washington admitting to chopping down a cherry tree: “I cannot tell a lie.”

Well, truth is, none of us can honestly say that we cannot tell a lie. We can and do lie. The benefit and fun may lie in deciding when to lie.

Consider the 5 gray-area situations:I describe in my Psychology Today article today.

“I’m Having a Hard Time Being Honest:” Three rationales for the more honest life

A few of my clients have admitted that the pressure caused by the COVID economic shutdown has made them less honest at work—They’re cutting corners to help preserve their job or keep their company or non-profit alive.

My Psychology Today article today offers a composite letter that describes such clients. Then I offer a response.

Are You Living a Life More of Integrity Than of Expedience?

My PsychologyToday.com article today argues that expedience too often trumps integrity, a problem I see worsening. It ends with a three-question self-assessment.

We're All Automatic LIars

I saw comedian Tom Devenport at the Napa Valley’s Lucky Penny Community Arts Center. He closed with a bit that cut close to many of our bones. We lie and get lied to so often—especially in an election year--that we don’t even register common lies as lies.

Sure, a white lie for politeness isn't a mortal sin but when fibs fall so trippingly from our tongues that we don’t even recognize them as fibs, it suggests that maybe we could all use a little consciousness raising. In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I list about 30 of our automatic lies.

The Hypochondriac: A Short-Short Story on the Limits of Honesty and Loyalty in Marriage

I worry about the how-to article's pontification and aridity. So in some recent PsychologyToday.com articles, I've genre-bended: I've attempted to embed a psychological issue within a short-short story, for example, Slick William and Average Jane. 

Today's offering explores the limits of honesty and loyalty in marriage. 

Would Society Be Better if Everyone Had to Wear a Truth Meter on Their Forehead?

I like thought experiments. So for today's PsychologyToday.com article, I explored the pros and cons of everyone having to wear a "truth meter" on their forehead.

The Challenge of Being Honest In Looking for a Job

It is very tempting to be dishonest when looking for a job. In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I've tried to be as honest as I can be in discussing the issue.

Is Honesty Really the Best Policy?

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer a short-short story about a run-of-the-mill dishonest person and what I'd say to him.

A Plea for Integrity

The "Wild Man": A Man Who Decided to Be Radically Honest

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I tell a short-short story about a man who, diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, decides to be radically honest in service of the world. Was it a good idea? I'm not sure.