Or perhaps that should read: ‘Hating what you can’t do, but are forced to do if you want to get paid’? It may be a natural foible of the human condition that we dislike taking part in activities where we feel inadequate, weak or less able than our peers. Professional performance that leads to praise, adulation and contemporaries clicking the ‘like’…
We work in a profession, and indeed live in a world, where our flight/fight/fright response is continuously triggered. We are overwhelmed with stress complexity, bathed in neon blue lights, underexposed to the sun (working inside all day), consumers of sugars, carbs, alcohol, fake fats, maddened by our inability to grasp the enormity of an interconnected world (how much time do you…
Success and a perceived advantage will nearly always promote envy. Not from all. But always from some. The person feeling envy can be a friend, a virtual friend (social media only) a colleague or—for the purposes of this blog—a patient. In fact dentistry is rife with enviers. It provides the fuel for so much of the interpersonal acrimony and vociferous negativity…
It’s been interesting to receive feedback during the release of this blog series on ‘difficult personalities’. There has been a lot of gratitude, people recognising certain traits from patients they dread, laughs at the predictable and almost identical behaviour different patients exhibit to different dentists, and for me the most important part is people writing to say the blogs have helped…
The difference between neurotics and psychotics is to be understood by deciphering the picture. Neurotics live on the ground like you and me. But, whilst living alongside you, they can also see the castle in the sky. They also see real life, people, their dentist, their doctor, their Instagram feed, the cat and the dog. They can also see a flying…
