Monday, April 19, 2021

Helping our patients to gain better emotional literacy to understand and navigate difficult relationships


Have you ever heard of the term “emotional vampires” described by American author Albert Bernstein?

He uses the phrase "emotional vampire" for people with various personality disorders who are often considered to drain emotional energy from others.

The reality is, we can all be “emotional vampires” for each other if we don’t have the emotional literacy to understand and appreciate each other’s different values, beliefs, way of thinking, way of perceiving and making decisions.

We all have experienced this too with some of our patients haven’t we?

Also with each other in a Professional and Inter-professional setting. It’s normal. It’s inevitable.

So what is the solution?

1. Avoidance- No
2. Get angry, frustrated, and expect others to change- Doesn’t really work
3. Better emotional literacy to understand, better communicate, and navigate the difficult interactions- Probably

It might make our lives and the lives of our patients much less stressful.

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