Is man measurable?

It is of course not difficult measuring the length and/or the weight of a Human Being. The measurements could become very precise as the measurement tools are so very efficient. But is it really possible to measure Human concepts such as intelligence or personality? I would say no. The measurement tools are in those cases rough, quite inexact, and, which is important to understand, a living Human Being is a dynamic creature, always in motion, always in a mood for change and further development. There are layers of intelligence and there is a flow of personality traits in each one of us. Psychological test instruments could be looked upon as keys adapted to heavy and thick doors. Test results are like putting the keys into the keyholes, but the door is not yet opened. There is quite a lot of work left to enter the inside of man, to explore all important patterns. That kind of work is in the hand of the skilled psychologist or the curious and stubborn investigator, who really wants to work hard in order to reach the other, the one that is a complex, dynamic, living Human Being, always being affected also by his or her surrounding environment.

Astrology a science?

The very first day: your mother brought you forward to the life of your own and presented you to the world. At this moment all the stars and all the planets and all the moons and all the satellites and all dark materia in the sky were at certain positions. Could all these billions and billions of universal materia influence and affect you in the meaning that the rest of your life was “mapped” and thereby predictable in all details? If you had been born 24 hours earlier or 40 hours later, or even three months later, then you would have been affected in quite another manner and your life would look quite differently. I assume that several hundred thousand people, living today, believe that this is the case. Astrology is a very widespread and deeply rooted belief system. I am a scientist and as such I have to be rude to the astrology believers: from a scientific point of view it is just bullshit, a sort of mumbo-jumbo. But science has discovered something else: If your parents and/or your relatives are true astrology believers they will most probably treat you in a special way if you are born on a certain day, because they want you to grow up in accordance with the astrologers’ predictions. And if you, when you grow older, also become a believer, you will unconsciously start to behave as predicted. This is within the self-fulfilling prophecies. Unconsciously you could even cause some serious effects from your own, internal belief system: if you think that you will get a disease and will become ill a special day – there is a chance that you will succeed in your own prediction, and you will become ill that very day. If you are a true believer and think that you will become rich one day – you will perhaps also end up as a rich man or woman. But this has nothing to do with the stars or the planets. It is up to your own power only, your own talents and your own strategies.

The long marriage

My wife and I have now been married for 34 years. It is a very long time, about the life average of the Human Being three hundred years ago. Nowadays people in Sweden (and in many other countries) seem not to believe in lifelong marriages. Most marriages are broken after five to ten years. The grass looks even more nice on the other side of the fence. Why not taste that one? And then the next one – why not? The question could very well be raised: what are the basic forces that make people stick to each other year after year after year – until death forces us to part? Love is a mixture of passion, good illusions, sexual desire, daily companionship. daily work at home – and fear. Do not underestimate the fear. Fear is always a strong factor in our life. We can not get rid of it – if we are openminded and not too rigid or too much denying what life is about. I do not want to be left alone. I fear the loneliness. I am scared of having no one to talk to – about everything I see and everything I sense, and taste, and feel, and read about. I just have to have a partner, a close, warm, giving and responding partner. Like my wife.

No TG Pilot Recruitment this year

I have had the privilege to assist THAI Airways International, primarily with the pilot recruitment, during around 40 years (starting in 1967). Today I am proud of having been appointed as Senior Advisor to the Manager of THAI Flight Crew Recruitment dpt. But as such I am not going to take any part in the ongoing selection work of THAI Pilot Candidates. The very important psychological part of the program has this year been transferred to other psychologists and/or Behaviour scientists. All the tests will be completely new ones, and nothing will become influenced directly by me. New cooks in the kitchen, a new menu will be served, and I have nothing to do with it. I am replaced just as men and women up in my age use to be. All I can do is to wish this new group of psychologists – and all candidates – and the THAI company a very good luck!

Trying to get control

The Human brain is built by billions of cells or neurons. At this very moment our planet is rushing around the sun at a speed close to 100 000 km/h. Is this worth to know? Do you become more clever or happier or more content if you know things like that? Possibly not. We, most of us, constrain our sights and our thinking to facts that are obvious, that we can experience by our own senses. We are nearsighted in the meaning of that we use just a small part of our brains in order to plan, to organize things, to work and to enjoy parts of life. In that sense we believe that we are in control, and we are satisfied by that. But this degree of control is based upon what we consciously are able to make up. In a way – the conscious part of our brain work is playing a trick to us: it presents the world in a way that is quite a small part of what it really is. The same goes for psychological testing: we like to believe that we could measure everything going on within a Human Being, but the measurements are just very limited tools when you are going to understand all dynamic patterns inside and in between Humans. We try to get control, but are we in control?

Man as a jigsaw

Everything in my (and in your) psychic and somatic organisation has been fitted together – after quite a long journey up to the age of around 20 years. It is a system, where every part, every cell, every organ and everything created by your brain (fantasies, organised thinking, conscious feelings) have been matched and formed into an interdependent system. That is why it is impossible to differentiate between somatic symtoms and mental conditions. If you want to maintain to keep fit – it is not enough by physical exercise only. If you want to expand, making yourself stronger and even better adapted to the diversity of life you have to acknowledge the need of becoming stronger both mentally and physically. This is not an easy piece of thing, and almost hopeless to conduct just by yourself. Putting all your pieces even better together in the jigsaw of yours – and you have to get some assistance by a skilled coach. At least in the beginning, as a start.

At Gordon Consulting…

…we have the privilege to work for some big customers and clients that stress the importance of the continuous development of a very good organisational work and to have very good employees and team oriented members. Very good employees are equal to well matured people with a well developed sense of judgement and a high awareness of responsibility. As a specialist in aviation psychology, having worked for big international airline companies for around forty years (and still), I am since some years back using all of our experiences and skills from Gordon Consulting in the recruitment and selection processes in one of the biggest hospitals in Sweden. There are a lot of similarities between the aviation industry and the health care organisations. At this time of the year we are in a mix of some days of vacation and of work. It is very stimulating.