Have you noticed that some professions are visible to the naked eye? It is worth looking at a person with pronounced cynicism and sarcasm and we can assume that we are dealing with a doctor. A lawyer will always find something to say from experience or recall an article. The teacher tries to explain and teach everything in as much detail as possible. The speaker has a well-delivered, fast and clear speech. Psychologists ask a lot of questions and want to “dig” you as deeply as possible.
You can go on for a long time, but in each case we are talking about the same thing – professional deformations of the personality. Simply put, about the transfer of professional qualities, skills and habits into life.
What it is
Unfortunately, you can often hear someone’s medical history, beginning with the words “My father was a military man, therefore strict discipline reigned at home …”. But this should not be so, this is an example of professional deformation.
The phenomenon of professional deformations was first described in the 60s of the XX century. It all started with studying the teaching profession. Today it is known that more often professional deformations occur in professions of the “person-to-person” type (socionomic professions). This is due to close interaction, mutual influence of the specialist and clients on each other’s personalities.
In such professions, the attitude of a specialist to a client should be:
- as an equal participant in the interaction;
- moral;
- respectful and humane;
- but without unnecessary pity and nervousness in order to maintain their own mental health.
Even more of this category are subject to deformations of professions that are endowed with increased power and weak control, for example, doctors, overseers in prisons.
Professional deformations result from professional adaptation. So, for example, a doctor needs to learn a certain emotional coldness in relation to people. But sometimes this coldness absorbs a person, then he becomes a semblance of a machine (robot) everywhere, in any spheres of life, and not only in the professional one. Well, as a result, the doctor addresses the patient as an object, not a subject.
Consider the features of deformations using the example of the profession of a psychologist:
- identification of patients with their diagnoses and talking only in this context (“the strangest social phobia in my practice”), the use of slang words;
- communicating with clients and their relatives with undisguised irritation, demonstration of employment and importance;
- insulting clients based on their diagnoses, syndromes and symptoms (“this psychopath”).
Obviously, these are negative deformations that have nothing to do either with the ethical professional code or with the elementary norms of universal human morality.
Is it possible to notice professional deformations? Yes, if the person is aware of the experience and does not drown them out. It is felt as a mismatch in the self-concept and in relationships with people. If a person speaks on his own behalf (“I’m tired for today”), and not blaming others (“I got tired and tired of these clients”), worries and reflects on this, then there is a chance to identify deformations and get rid of them.
Professional deformations do not occur in a short period of time; it takes years. As a result of professional activity, the following changes:
- specialist activity;
- the level of energy reserves;
- activity of psychomotor reactions;
- the structure of relationships with people around;
- position on professional issues.
In addition, the stability of the psyche and the body changes in relation to external stimuli. Fading or weakening of positive mental properties is noted. Taken together, this is dangerous because of professional burnout and professional deformations of the individual.
Professional deformities are found in all people, but they are not always characterized as problematic and requiring correction. The level of severity of deformations and their impact on the life of a person as a person, a citizen and a family member is important.
Deformation model, or factors causing them
The occurrence of professional deformations is influenced by both external and internal factors. Everything that regulates professional activity belongs to external ones:
- being in any structure, hierarchy;
- fulfillment of duties, social order;
- instructions, textbooks, manuals.
If a specialist accepts instructions as the only truth, then he forces himself to deformations and formal (functional) attitude towards other people (clients). With such a differentiated attitude towards a person (only within the framework of diagnostics, methods, classifications), the specialist naturally changes his consciousness.
As a result, if a specialist is guided only “as it should”, “what should be”, “I know better”, “it should be so”, then his consciousness becomes motionless and stereotyped. It’s no secret that theory is always very different from practice. And if a specialist applies something without analyzing the real life conditions of a particular person, but blindly following textbooks, then it is not only close to professional deformations of the personality, but also to non-professionalism.
In addition, the individual and personal characteristics of a person also affect. The likelihood of occupational deformities is higher in people:
- with motionless nervous processes;
- the narrowness of the profession and its cultivation;
- a tendency to form rigid stereotypes of behavior;
- reflection;
- low intelligence;
- excessive self-criticism;
- moral gaps in education.
The more a person is susceptible to creating and following stereotypes, the more difficult it is for him to learn something new, think differently, see problems and solve them. As a result, the whole worldview revolves only around the profession. There are no other interests or hobbies, and if there is, he goes there with colleagues and talks about work.
Very often, professional deformations are preceded by psychological defense mechanisms that a person is forced to turn on in order to preserve his “I”. The most popular mechanisms include:
- negation,
- crowding out,
- projection,
- rationalization,
- identification,
- alienation.
The higher the emotional stress at work, the more likely it is to develop deformities. The emotional situation, in turn, is very often depressed as the length of service grows.
Deformities can be the result of burnout. This is an unstable mental state that occurs against the background of increased emotionality at work and is accompanied by irritation, anxiety, overexcitation and nervous breakdowns. As a result – fatigue from work, dissatisfaction, loss of growth prospects, professional destruction (deformation) of the personality.
Types of deformations
It is customary to distinguish 3 types of deformations:
- General professional deformities. They arise under the long-term influence of working conditions and the characteristics of the activity itself.
- Typological deformations. They arise as a result of the mutual influence of personality traits and work activities, the narrow focus of the profession.
- Individual deformations. They arise on the basis of individual and personal characteristics, interests, needs, abilities, motives.
In addition, all deformations are divided into destructive and constructive. For example, the assimilation of punctuality and diligence in everything is a useful deformation, but its transition to pedantry, exactingness (self-demanding) and irritation from the sluggishness of others are destructive deformations.
There is another popular classification (E.F.Seer):
- General professional deformities. Deformations typical of any profession. For example, the suspiciousness of the guards.
- Special professional deformations. Changes within a narrow specialization, for example, the prosecutor’s accusation, the resourcefulness of the lawyer.
- Professional typological deformations. A complex of features of the profession and personality. Within this framework, three groups of deformations can be distinguished: professional orientation (change in worldview, values, motives), abilities (syndromes such as superiority or narcissism develop gradually), character traits (strengthening of any traits, for example, lust for power).
- Individual deformations. They imply the development under the influence of the characteristics of the profession of super qualities or accentuations of character (workaholism, over-obligation).
What is interesting: deformations can affect not only the personality, but also the person as an individual. For example, athletes are physically fit, while the military is in perfect posture. But these are rather positive deformations. Among the negative ones, psychosomatic diseases can be noted.
In practice, it is practically impossible to distinguish between the sphere of work (some norms) and life (other norms). Therefore, people of difficult professions (police officers, employees of special services and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, executioners, psychiatrists and psychologists) often find themselves in captivity of mental disorders, diseases, oppressive conditions and even susceptible to suicide.
Of course, due to general principles, labor instructions cannot be violated, as well as regularly suppress the social norms learned by a person. Therefore, we can conclude that an incorrectly chosen profession is a harbinger of deformations.
Prevention of deformations
Thus, professional deformations are changes in the cognitive processes of an individual and disorganization of her psychology. In the context of the problem of deformations, they usually talk about destructive changes that reduce a person’s working capacity, lower productivity, and cause the development of negative personality traits and signs in behavior. In a broad sense, professional deformation is a trace (positive or negative) that a profession leaves a person.
Signs of professional deformities:
- building your profession into an absolute (the only worthy form of activity);
- rigidity in behavior (inability to change behavior outside of work);
- adherence to certain behavioral stereotypes and professional roles;
- decreased performance, deterioration in performance;
- fatigue;
- loss of knowledge, skills and ways of doing work (impoverishment of the repertoire).
With the deterioration of labor activity, a slowdown in the development of the personality also occurs, since it develops only in conditions of activity and any kind of activity, for an adult – labor.
The orientation of the personality plays a special role in the manifestation and prevention of deformities. It is important to have a developed system of moral and ethical qualities and norms. Their bearer is a person and cultural products. But it is the moral norms that a person turns to in difficult situations of choice or situations that are not prescribed by a private professional code that have a regulatory influence on activities.
Obviously, moral qualities (duty, responsibility, honesty) can only be developed independently, by reading books, watching films, and engaging in social activities. That is, you need to form moral education in yourself.
The risk of developing deformations increases if the values (moral beliefs and requirements) of a person as a person and as a subject of a profession, that is, public morality and professional, diverge. If such situations arise often, and a person prefers the norms of the profession, then personal deformations will not be long in coming. A striking example of such a contradiction can be the confrontation between the public belief “do not kill” and the executioners, or the case of euthanasia in medicine, or the situation of choosing whom to save if there is a chance to save only one person.
If such a choice is initially made easily, then a person should not be afraid of deformations, because the norms of the profession already correspond to his personal identity. If the choice is not easy to make either in the first year of work, or after 5 years, then the stressful influence of the profession increases. In this case, it is worth learning the techniques of self-regulation or changing the field of activity.
The practice in Greece, which is used in relation to people carrying out the death sentence, looks interesting from the point of view of the prevention of deformities and disorders. There, execution is legalized as a form of the death sentence. So, several people perform it, and they are given half combat cartridges and half blank. Thus, no performer has a clear sense of himself as an executioner.
However, for almost any profession, it is important to be able to switch from one role to another, to distinguish between family and work. For this you need:
- develop flexibility of thinking;
- develop artistic skills;
- expand the ways of communicating with people;
- learn to change people’s perceptions.
Otherwise, at home and at work, conflicts, injuries, disagreements arise, and the person himself suffers from deformations.
