ANCIENT&
not so ancient
WISDOM
offering a weekly positive perspective
June
5, 2003
A crucial fact about descriptions: they are never
neutral, even if
intended to be. They are always evaluative. No one is just a redhead,
just athletic, or just gifted. Descriptions always implicitly mean
something, positive or negative, or they would not be singled out for
mention. A little girl in Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" comic
strip, for
example, says that people expect more of her because she has naturally
curly hair...
...The point is that what we react to most strongly
is the implicit meaning
of what is said, not the explicit content.
...In a similarly indirect fashion, descriptions
tell you not only what
people think of you but implicitly what they expect from you.
-
Ken W. Christian, PH.D.
Kenneth
W. Christian, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist with more than twenty-five
years of
clinical and organizational experience, and he is the author of Your Own Worst Enemy:
Breaking the Habit of Adult Underachievement.
Since
1979 he has served on the Board of Directors of the Western Graduate School of
Psychology
in Palo Alto, California, and as Chairman from 1995 to 1999.
He directed the Graduate Program in Clinical Psychology for a period of six years
at Lone Mountain
College, and oversaw the establishment of an External Master's Degree in
Psychology. Dr.
Christian's published articles have appeared in the Journal of Clinical and
Consulting Psychology
and other periodicals.
He
also spent one season coaching his ten-year-old daughter's softball team all
the way to the league
championship game (which was unfortunately lost due to tragically impaired
umpiring.)
He
divides his time between New York City and Paris, France.
Wishing
you great and continued success!
Sincerely,
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