One of our favourite pieces of reading at Psychology Melbourne is an essay written by American writer Joan Didion called "On Self Respect" from her collection of work called Slouching Towards Bethlehem, which has for many years had a treasured place on our bookshelves.

"Although to be driven back upon oneself is an uneasy affair at best,"rather like trying to cross a border with borrowed credentials," Didion writes in this brief exploration of character. "it seems to me now the one condition necessary to the beginnings of real self-respect. Most of our platitudes notwithstanding, self-deception remains the most difficult deception."

Over at PsychCentral, blogger Christy Matta has a less literary but nonetheless worthwhile piece on "How to Lose Your Self-Respect in Four Easy Steps", taken from the work of Marsha Linehan, who developed Dialectical Behaviour Therapy.

DBT has been shown to be an effective approach to working with people struggling with explosive anger, self-destructive and impulsive behaviour, substance abuse, and other emotional problems, including depression and anxiety.