“Show Me Your Watch and I shall disclose to youwho you are"! I amstealing this saying from a Swedish proverb, but there it was about shoes. Watches or shoes – it means the same thing; it is not a coincidence what you are wearing! In my career as a psychologist I have worked with numerouspeople from all walks of life. Having dealt with perhaps100.000 people over the years, I have not only started to observeparallels in dresscode and behaviour patterns of people of similarage, with similar line of work, the same advantages and disadvantages likes and dislikes, etc.; as a matter of fact, I have actually begun to categorize them in my mind. And there arethousands, if not millions, who share this insight or skill. Perhaps you go to a fortune-teller, convincedthat he or she possesses some unexplainable ability to see things. People believe sobecausethe fortune-teller have been able to tell them so much about them “that only someone with special gifts could know". Little do they know that the clothes they are wearing, their accessories, their hairdos , the friend they are with , (and how they treat each-other), their gestures, if their eyes are shifty, if they are clean and neat and shaved, if they have an educated language, etc., speaks volumes about a persons past and present. Being ableto interpret such signals does not make fortune-tellers into oracles. Most likely everybody is doing this evaluating of people, based on demeanour and physical object. How successful one becomesat it is a matter of talent, interest and how many people one is exposed to over the years. And one more thing; the abilitywill be aquired much faster after having become aware of the phenomena itself. This is what I am saying; everybody is doing it, but very few know what they are doing, and that it can be beneficial to them. And since I am very aware I say; “Show me your watch". Of course, it is not risk-free to put forth such a challange, everything concidered, a watch is a very isolated stimulus,not much to build a description upon. The job would be less of a challange if I could see the personcome up to me and show me his watch. Then I would seethe way he dressed , his hair-style, the way he walked, the confidence of his eyes, his non-verbal behaviour, and, finally, the watch. To no-ones surprice, the watchwould hardly be needed to make the evaluation
Arnold Ahlstrom has sinced written about articles on various topics from Alternative Medicine, Religion and Jewelry. Arnold Ahlstrom paid his dues in academic psychologyat the University of Lund. After many years of counselling people and companies he has recently started a website:
Abuse Survivors Support Groups So visible that the day will come when people see systemic abuse and they say, Oh yes, people rob banks rather than, Oh my God, how can this happen!