Introduction
“The most personal is the most universal.”
I heard that saying when I was a kid and I hope it holds true. The reason I’m writing this blog is simple: I want my kids to know how to avoid the mistakes I’ve made and the mistakes I’ve seen countless others make in my professional career as a psychiatrist. These rules are the most personal things I have to share with my children, and I hope they contain some universal value that others will find helpful.
The title of this blog is derived from a saying my grandfather had whenever we got lost: “Go right and you’ll never go wrong.” If we had truly counted on this bit of wisdom for direction, obviously we would’ve gone around in circles. But it’s the underlying meaning of that saying that has always intrigued me. Do the right thing, and you’ll always be okay. Like many things he said, it is simple and profound at the same time. Why shouldn’t we always just “go right”? It makes perfect sense. And which one of us wouldn’t like to say we had never gone wrong?
So why do so few people heed this advice? I think a big part of it is simple lack of understanding. We don’t know how to go right. As a psychiatrist for adults, children, and adolescents, I kept seeing the same wrongs repeated over and over again. At first it seemed like these were simple mistakes that anyone could make, but the more I was in the business, the more these things became obvious. We can’t go right all the time, but we can do better.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m no guru. When you see these things as many times as I have, you can’t help but notice them. These are the rules of the human condition. I’m just an observer, and this is what I’ve seen. Bear with me a while, and let’s see if we can find our way.
