Commander - Unit Psychologist: A Powerful Tandem
Abstract
The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage and strictness. There is no commander who can be successful without those five qualities. But only one can win, who understands. (Sun Tzu). These words of the important and clever person adequately uncover background of the possible relations and interactions between commander and psychologist. Only a few soldiers -- specialists (psychologist, mental health professional or chaplain...) realized the origin of fragile relations, even in tense situations during NATO operational deployment. Those relations are based on mutual supporting, understanding and respecting of functional peculiarities of their tasks. They should be synergy oriented for fulfilling one and only goal: "Accomplish their tasks with success and return back home without injury." For commander that could mean "Without physical injury," for psychologist on the other side "Without psychological trauma." Methods and tools which are used by them are different from person to person. Finally it really does not depend on their position in unit but .... The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy. (SUN-TZU)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA472814
Entities
People
- Pavol Stepo