When I was in high school my mom (a marriage and family therapist) cajoled me into using something like E-Prime.  I had to be really careful when making generalizations around her, and the big no-no was to say that something or someone &quot;made me feel&quot; a certain way.  It was infuriating at the time but it certainly made me take responsibility for own my feelings and opinions.  This experience probably influenced my decision to major in linguistics.