Do you want to become certified?

In one of the major daily newspapers in Sweden there is today (Sunday) an article questioning all diplomas and certificates that have been given to lots of New Age-oriented therapists. Those certifications are not validated by any Swedish official authority. As a matter of fact any private company or organisation could come forward stating that a certain education, arranged by this company/organisation, will lead to a diploma or a certificate. Today there are lots of certified coaches, therapists, test-leaders, teambuilders and more on the market. I suppose that this is an opportunity also for you who read this. If you want and if you dare you can also become a certifier. If you certify your best friend, he or she could perhaps also certify you. Let us all be certified!

Silence as a killer

Do you want to fight without using any visible weapons? Do you want to react with your disappointment or your rage? Do you want to kill a relationship?
Well, try this: keep silent. Avoid any open communication. Do not respond by other means than your silence (which is, of course, also a response). Keep low.
This is very efficient. It kills, because your opponent is met by your ignorance, and ignorance works – always – as a bullet that hits very vulnerable parts of the relation.
And, you know, the silent killer is behaving like he, or she, is completely innocent. “I have not done anything, do not blame me”, he, or she, says.
Well, this is of course true from one point of view. From another one he, or she, or both of them, pulled the trigger very efficiently.
The relation went dead.

Acting out

The young man, age around 20, long hair, pierced ears, sat opposite me in the tram. Both of us were reading the free newspapers that are delivered at almost all stations. After finishing his reading the young man throw his paper on the seat next to him. When he got up to leave the tram I reminded him that he had to carry his trash, leaving it in a container outside the tram. He looked angry at me, took his paper, walked three steps in the tram – and throw the paper away on another seat, glancing at me with a scornful smile.
Well, it was certainly not any big crime, and I just shook my head. The young man was just another one. You could meet them every day and every evening and every night. They don´t want to follow any rules or adjust in the patterns that have been organised and set up by the older generation. They are in an attack mode and are acting out towards lots of things that they do not like. The problem is that the attacks are very seldom verbalised. It is not so easy to hear what they try to say and what they try to state or what they want. I think that we have to force them to speak out, to find arguments and to start open discussions. Because if we do not do that we will soon walk around in a society, where the acting out-youngsters gradually take over the streets, the trams, the buses and the trains.
Shall we bet?
In twenty years from now we will have an even more acting out-society, even bigger clashes between the hooligans, much more tough climate almost everywhere.
Want to bet?

Safety inspectors

During the last week the mass media in Sweden has drawn public attention to the importance of safety matters concerning the nuclear energy systems. There is nothing more important than safety in coping with nuclear technology. Nothing must go wrong. There are of course the same basic safety oriented principles that have to be valid for all airline crew members, cabin crew included. The same goes for Air Traffic Controllers and all technicians involved in the airline industry. The same goes for all those involved in sea navigation. And, not to forget, the same goes also for all management levels in the airline and in the shipping industry. Safety first, and after that nothing and after that nothing and after that all aspects of beauty, comfort and customer friendly things. And the same goes for the modern, high-tech medical care. Together with my colleagues we are safety inspectors – checking all necessary human elements included for a Safety First-principle. This is for sure not appreciated by all others, especially as we tend to become very penetrating and very strict in our inspections. But it is even more valued by others. I am proud to work as a safety inspector in my role as a psychologist.

The hunters and the hunted ones

Is man the tranquil and quiet creature on earth? Is he, or she, completely satisfied with his, or her, small allotment, sitting there, smoking a pipe, watching the sun goes down, just enjoying the stillness? Well, perhaps during old days, or during a lunch break. But otherwise the instincts, or impulses, create an uneasiness and a restlessness, forcing him, or her, to wake up the old driving forces: to become a hunter. I am a hunter, and most of my colleagues around me are hunters, and so are my friends. As long as we manage to keep an adequate distance to each other, pointing out our hunting-grounds that must not interfere with each other too much we can still act as we liked each other. And sometims real friendship and real love may grow. But as soon as I make a move into the hunting-grounds, in which my colleagues thought that they were promised their sole rights they will attack me – from behind, from all sides, and they will not hesitate to kill me if they have a chance – not literally; it is more an act of castration. And suddenly I am the hunted one. Until I am in a position where I can use my brain, finding out ways for a counter attack.
And this is a part of life, and it goes on and on and on…