I recently spoke with a group of medical students. At the end of our time together I was asked to state my core message to the students about their relationships with their patients. I encouraged them to not become their role.
We all must assume a role in an industrial society to make a living or to contribute to our community in some capacity: Doctor, mayor, nurse, teacher, etc.. The role is a tag to promote confidence and covey a message of legitimacy.
Some people, as they age in their roles, allow their personalities to fuse with their roles. They begin to behave in archetypal ways, imprinted upon them by media and example. Some become rigid and patriarchal. Some become duplicitous and corrupt. Some become haughty and condescending.
To remain genuine, vulnerable and human within your role is an extremely conscious and demanding process, as the repetitive functions of the role become more and more automatic and routine. The functions of the role often improve in speed and efficiency with this repetition. However, boredom and increasingly mindless efficiency have a corrosive effect on human enthusiasm and opennesss.
Treating each case or each human contact within a role as fresh, interesting and worthy of full concentration is terribly demanding. Practice is difficult. But, the reward to the person who remains alive within a role is life itself.
