I found this short video by Dr Mel Gill useful at one level, and for that reason I decided to share it after adding subtitles. At the same time, however, I believe that dividing the world into people who have psychological problems and people who do not—and assuming that we ourselves belong to the latter group—can itself have troubling consequences for our relationships with other human beings.

I understand that, in this video, Dr Gill asks us to look at other people’s disturbed or unusual behaviour from the standpoint of help, care, and compassion, while remaining committed to positive change in other people and in the world, with an understanding that the results of what we do may reveal themselves only in a distant future.

My own belief, which I try continually to keep in mind and to repeat to myself in my relationships with others, goes simply one step further. It is the continual remembrance of these words attributed to Philo of Alexandria:

Be kind to everyone, for everyone you meet is fighting a suffering of which you know nothing.
Whenever it is possible, try to withhold kindness from no one—and if you ask whether it is possible, it is always possible.

Aydin Areta