Can the job change your personality and affect the relations with others?
Celebrities Suffering from Professional Deformation
Famous Hollywood actor Val Kilmer began to warm to the role of the lead singer of Doors Jim Morris a year before the filming. During this time, Val learned all Jim’s songs and did his best to imitate the singer’s timbre of voice, gait and daily habits. This great work proved to be remarkable, and this became one of the best roles in Kilmer’s career. After the film had been shot, Val’s relatives and friends noticed that he had changed completely. His voice resembled that of Jim Morris and he could not abandon the musician’s habits. The actor’s relatives got worried, and Val himself realized that he would not be able to get rid of Jim Morris’s haunting shadow without help. To get out of the role of a rock band soloist, Val turned to a psychoanalyst for help.
However, Val Kilmer was not the only actor who could not part with his character after the filming ended. For example, his colleague Jared Leto, who played a villain in the film “Suicide Squad”, also underwent a considerable change while working on the role. He would always appear on the filming set in his character’s image and speak with his colleagues the way his character, the Joker, would speak. Jared even sent unusual gifts to other artists – a rat, an envelope with bullets and strange videos – these gifts were quite in the style of The Joker.
Even Richard Gere could not avoid being excessively drawn to his on-screen character. When the actor was working on the role of a homeless person, he was seen rummaging through garbage cans during the pauses in filming.
Actors are all creative and impressionable people. Reality and work are often intertwined in their life. What about common professions? Can they change a person’s character? Psychologists say they can and have even invented a special term for this phenomenon – “professional deformation”.
Who is at risk?
Experts have compiled a list of professions that often leave an imprint on the character. This list includes teachers, who often become too authoritarian, fail to listen to other people’s opinion and turn a deaf ear to any criticism.
People from the military sphere are often subjected to professional deformation and can no longer distinguish between a platoon of soldiers and their family members, continuing to give orders not only on the parade ground, but also at home.
Police officers and officials are often suspicious of others, considering them all potential criminals.
Even if the profession has nothing to do with other people, it does not mean that its representatives are fully protected from any changes in the character. For example, it has always been known that power changes people, so becoming administrators or officials, they turn into domestic tyrants, bringing their authoritarian management style to the family.
Where does professional deformation originate from?
The most common cause of professional deformation is stress. To adjust to the emotional stress that an employee is forced to come across at work, it is necessary to develop certain personality traits, which, of course, cannot remain in the office.
Monotonous and repeated work often leaves an imprint on the character. By performing the same actions every day, people get used to it, so they cannot change anything and start to behave differently.
Personality changes occur on the background of professional burnout. For example, a sympathetic doctor begins to perceive patients as inanimate objects and becomes more cynical not only at work, but also in everyday life.
How to cope with professional deformation?
We should remember that our job does not always have a destructive influence on our character. Sometimes it makes the person better, and the skills often come in handy in everyday life. But if you or your loved ones feel that the job begins to disturb your harmonious relations with other people, you need to take action.
To begin with, answer the question “Who am I?”. Take your time, you should try to give at least 10 responses and write them down. Next, try to arrange these roles in order of importance. What is meaningful to you? The role of the mother or that of the head of department? Try to do this exercise as often as possible by adding new answer options to the list. Learn. Experts believe that acquisition of new knowledge and exchange of professional experience are the best ways to look at the situation and at yourself from a different angle. Do not refuse to participate in conferences and internship programs.
Try to separate work from personal life. This advice is especially important for workaholics, who literally live at work. Make it a rule to work only during business hours. Do not take work home and try not to linger in the office. Even if something remains unaccomplished, you should not blame yourself – you may have time to finish the work the next day.
Signs of professional deformation
- You are communicating mainly with colleagues.
- Sooner or later, every conversation shifts to your job issues.
- Your nearest people say it is difficult to communicate with you.
- Career has become the measure of success in your life.
