The Professional

The lawyer has to know the secret of the accused or the defendant to have a thorough go in saving him from the jaws of further shame and humiliation. The doctor has to be told all about the maladies to make him equipped properly to root out the ailment. The teacher, on the other hand, has to take full responsibility for the future of the candidate under his charge. Experts of such kind are, in fact, masters and they can do or undo the fate of their wards. There is no denying the fact that for the professional, the fees that he charges may be the only means of livelihood. That does not mean that he has to be drained of the milk of human kindness or that he has to harden himself to such an extent as to make himself mechanical and turn himself into an automaton.

The kindness and sympathy that a professional man can bestow on his customer or client may remove the mental agony of the latter and restore his lost confidence. The will to fight is as necessary in the sufferer as in the benefactor. With confidence and normalcy regained, the client himself may assist the professional in making an invincible stand for him. The initial move, however, depends on the professional person who is taking up the case or the issue. He has to be gentle and attentive to his narrators of misery. If at all, he is to act automatically; he should be able to do it in respect of bringing out his feeling, switching on his softness at a moment's notice, because in the package assistance that he provides to the ill-fated, the human factor should be genuinely taken into account.

The ethics of the professional man should be clearly defined for him as well for others who seek his help. A high and complete sense of dignity has to be maintained where clients, customers, patients or proteges are concerned. Their secrets are his own secrets, their welfare is his own welfare, their im­provements are to be watched and followed with parental care and affection. It is not what he contri­butes but how he does it that is important. If the doctor laughs at the pains of the patient, the lawyer jibes at the crime of the accused, the tennis or the sports coach loses his temper because of the inefficiency of the trainee, there will be hardly any solace -for the incompetent, any hope for those who have made mistakes and are striving to overcome them.