How can this be? It's not possible to have a balanced overview of, or proper perspective about a situation if one viscerally feels in mortal danger. It is now a life-or-death emotion-directed struggle, reason has fled (executive function / mature judgment). This brain-stem-led behavior does not arise from stupidity or evil, though the consequences can easily be both. Such people who fight tooth-and-nail for their "rights", insisting that they're "right" (when in fact they may be partially or wholly wrong), very likely had traumatic childhoods (insecure or disorganized attachments): http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/12/everyones-doing-their-best-under.html plus a variety of other traumas about which we truly know little or nothing.
Nobody gets up in the morning and decides to behave unreasonably or foolishly - there are valid reasons, though not necessarily current ones, therefore appearing irrational. It's really useful AND practical to try to understand such strangely disruptive behavior, and try to mediate instead of sliding into heavy-handed, adversarial mode.
We understand all of this when a patient behaves irrationally, BUT when a colleague behaves "badly", OUR judgment can become compromised, and WE can can overreact & easily become punitive!
Our colleagues, & we ourselves, deserve just as much empathy as our patients.
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| Nita Zeqiri, National Geographic http://photography.nationalgeographic.com |
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