What it Means to Practise Psychology
This morning I was driving to work when I noticed someone walking along the footpath.
There was something about this person’s appearance that reminded me (superficially, of course) of a patient of mine whom I had spoken with recently.
Immediately, fragments of the patient’s story, and of my experience of sitting with them, came back to me.
And then another thought followed instantly:
I wonder what this person’s story is (which is likely something I will never get to know).
I’ve been working as a psychologist for about 25 years now. First for several years in Hungary, and for the past 9–10 years in Australia. Before that, there were university placements, hospital wards, and many other settings that “supplied” the stories. That adds up to a great many of them.
When I think about it now, I must carry thousands of people’s stories.
Many of them I probably no longer consciously remember.
But I don’t think they ever completely leave.
Listening to people’s stories every day changes how you see the world. It’s been a long time since I started seeing the world around me through stories—mine, and other people’s too.
Sometimes I wonder whether every profession gradually builds its own internal world.
Doctors, teachers, nurses, lawyers, and other professionals probably carry different stories.
But psychologists spend much of their professional lives doing exactly that: sitting with another person’s story.
I wonder how many stories a psychologist carries, and what carrying these stories does to us.
