Vocational Identity, Essay Example

Two stories, ‘The Ignored Lesson of Anne Frank’ by Bruno Bettelheim and ‘The Social Power of Expert Healers’ by Howard Brody describe two different situations. While first reading is a review of Anne Frank’s life and Nazi doctors from alternative point of view, second one relates directly to vocational issues.

Bruno Bettelheim’s ‘The Ignored Lesson of Anne Frank’ enlightens a famous story about Anne Frank from psychological point of view. Though usually her diary is considered more like a brief description of heroic lifestyle and religious fidelity, Bettelheim sees it as an example of distressed person trying hard to stay alive and save her psycho. Usually, readers tend to advocate Franks’ attempts to stick to their lifestyles even though they led to death of nearly all of them. What Bettelheim really wants to underline is a difference between healthy realism and psychological defense. He insists that psychological defense that took shape of usual life adherence must be overlooked and not perceived as general motivation. His role as an author is to distract readers from their usual fascinated perception of Anne Frank’s behavior and to show it as a message to those who can face stressful situations.

Those who are distressed tend to hide from their problems and pretend that nothing happened. When people failed to estimate realistically that they are endangered and their shelters, lives and safety were under constant threat they chose to adhere more and more determinedly to their principles, living habits, and to each other. It seems touchy but in fact it is a wrong way, Bettelheim underlies. When people cannot abandon their homes, personal belongings, their convictions even under evident threat it is not normal; to say more, it is dangerous.

Idea of psychological defense and pretending that everything is doing right is general ‘The Ignored Lesson of Anne Frank’. Nazi doctors who acted unmercifully and failed to stick to any humanistic standards did hide from themselves, too. As well as Ann Frank, they could not perceive themselves in a way they really deserved; instead, they just concentrated on their professional skills and ignored the purposes they served. Bettelheim claims that people who deny objective reality tend to hide behind their lifestyles, personal possessions, routine, vocational identities and the idea that they deem they are committed to.

The idea of the Bruno Bettelheim’s story is to show that Anne Frank’s family did not die heroically. In fact, it died in vain. The ignored lesson is still ignored, since media presents Franks as heroes; and the purpose of ‘The Ignored Lesson of Anne Frank’ is to make the readers think about things that really matter when it comes to life and death.

‘The Social Power of Expert Healers’ by Brody tells about a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Baker who suffer from diseases. Mr. Baker suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; his wife, Mrs. Baker suffers from arthritis, angina, and diabetes and she cares for her husband. Doctor Valerie Walsh takes care of them.

Doctor Walsh visits her patients regularly and she acknowledges very well that Mr. Baker has a really serious illness. But she chooses to hope for his betterment and does not want to face grim prognosis. The Bakers behave themselves just like her as they do not want to be cared for in the health center; his wife objects to aides who can assist her with her care – she chooses to be the only caregiver; she is even ready to be a martyr. Though their doctor is fully aware that all these things are to the detriment of their health she does not object to their wishes. Instead, she tries to be compassionate and allows Mrs. Bakers to be the only caregiver, and the Bakers are grateful. They think that it is a kind of collaboration and thank Doctor Walsh for her help. They trust her and think that all measures she deems possible are beneficial for their health. Doctor Walsh did act in a significantly controversial way. She refuses to give information about unoptimistic predictions and real state of Mr. Baker’s health. She thinks that revealing this information will damage the feelings of the couple. Only Doctor Walsh knows this unsettling information, and she does not know that the Bakers would disapprove of her behavior.

In this situation Doctor Walsh possesses the power as she chooses whether to disclose the dangerous information to her customers or not. It is a kind of power characteristic to all expert and professional work, as only professionals can derive information from the situation that is available for public consideration. Their education and professional skills allow them to draw the conclusions and make decisions, thus affecting lives of their service users. In this case information was knowingly hidden from the people who could be affected by it. Though its disclosure could lead to loss of trust to the Doctor Walsh, it could change the couple’s attitude to Mr. Baker’s health and their treatment. But she chose to keep them ignorant about potential threats and thus saved her reputation and their trust.

Doctor Walsh in the long run tells the couple about possible treatment – mechanical ventilation. It happens after six months of her taking care for the couple. Mr. Baker rejects this idea. She even tries to persuade the Bakers to invite aids into their house to take care of them. But all her attempts fail when Mr. Baker dies within a month. Mrs. Baker dies six weeks later in nursing home. Brody does not approve of Doctor Walsh actions as she deemed herself able to decide what must be revealed to patient and what must not be revealed. She was so involved in her attempts to create an impression that everything was that looked like self-preoccupation. Her idea of compassionate doctor did not hold water. She failed to provide professional service she was expected to provide. The Bakers trusted her and thought that she was able to decide what is good and what is wrong for them. But she instead placed all responsibility upon the Bakers, as she complied with their wishes. Certainly, as a result she cultivated positive emotions and gratitude. But what is gratitude in comparison to human life?

The story ‘The Social Power of Expert Healers’ by Brody deals with a very important topic. It is a relationship between experts and patients. In the ideal case expert and patient share the power to decide what course will be taken and what is good or bag for the patient. But it is also obvious that in order to be perceived as experts professionals do need some dominance. It must not become a simple dependence on what expert wants to say or does not want. Experts possess power to decide and to dominate over their patients. It is an ethical issue how to perceive this power. No distinction between professionals and their clients will lead to false impression of patient’s ability to decide. Authoritative influence of experts cannot be underestimated. But reducing experts’ role, as well as its exaggeration is a negative feature. A delicate balance must be struck between professional skills and playing God.

So the problem of the second story ‘The Social Power of Expert Healers’ is a bit different from the first one. While Ann Frank’s story shows people that were unwilling to obey obvious circumstances, Bakers’ story shoes a person that took a control over situation and prevented ‘victims’ from understanding of the process.

Vocational identity is an issue of both stories, though to the certain degree. In the first paper the idea of doctors that could not live with themselves if perceived the situation at face value. But there was an alternative way and they identified themselves as scientists, as people who work for an idea, as researchers. Nazi were people and if they had thought about their work in a common way they would have committed suicide. But it was comfortable to hide behind the idea, behind the profession, and behind their skills. Brody’s story raised the same issue: when Doctor Walsh hid behind her idea of compassionate physician she rejected the fact that she could possibly have no moral right to hide how serious was the illness of Mr. Baker.

For me there are several potential problems that were raised in these stories. All of them are connected with vocational issues, and all of us may face such situations in our lives.

First issue is a problem of expert-patient relationship. When a man calls himself an expert, he takes responsibility for all his decisions. First of all, it means that skills that expert possesses are special and other people need them. So they are ready to trust his or her recommendations, adhere to methods he or she prescribes. Be it any professional, it requires certain decisions to be made on behalf of customers. Doctors are first and foremost professionals who bear this burden; ethical issues are indivisible from their work so they must work out a strategy. It should be a compromise between quest for praise and moral obligation. In my opinion, all people should be aware of their diseases and ways of treatment. Bitter truth is better than white lie when it comes to question of life and death. And Brody thinks so, too, as he shows disapproval of Valerie Walsh’s attitude to her work. Identifying yourself as an expert needs clear and precise principles that sometimes may run counter to your wishes.

Another vocational problem is hiding behind the idea of something. Just like Ann Frank hid behind her lifestyle, Nazi doctors hid behind their idea, Doctor Walsh hid behind the compassionate doctor mask and let the patients decide what was good.

Nearly every profession involves ethical and psychological controversy. Even a seller of the clothes chooses whether to sell the article of clothing or to admit that it does not suit the customer. It is necessary to inform future professionals when they choose their vocation of such issues, because some of them may become irresponsible or just coward workers, and their lack of decisiveness may lead to lethal consequences, as in Bakers’ case.

An example of Mrs. Baker’s wish to sacrifice her health or even life bears a close resemblance with Ann Frank. They both committed themselves to meaningless tortures, exposing their lives to risk. The point is that it was their conscious choice – and both of them wanted to eliminate the impact of objective reality. Realizing what is really important in current situation is vital for people; and experts like Doctor Walsh must help them to understand it and grasp the degree of danger.

Both ‘The Social Power of Expert Healers’ and ‘The Ignored Lesson of Anne Frank’ give their readers a reach food for thought. They show that situations that usually cause one attitude may cause yet another one from another point of view. So when choosing the vocation one should think twice. The ability to make difficult and unpopular decisions is not inborn, and it takes some doing to inform people of, say, deadly diseases.

Works Cited

Brunk, Terence, et. al. Literacies: Reading, Writing, Interpretation. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2000.