Starting his
career at the then notorious Paramatta Gaol, he quickly
established his credentials as a talented analyst of the
criminal mind.
He went on
to became the 'go to' Criminal Psychologist for many senior
criminal lawyers seeking professional analysis of their clients. Working for
such highly credentialed members of the criminal legal fraternity meant he was
also working on high profile cases and his public profile grew accordingly.
Watson-Munro
notes that many, if not the majority of his criminal analysis investigations
were not to the benefit to the Court case of the accused therefore never seeing the light
of day.
It was 1999
and his career was soaring. His profile was now truly National through his work
with Alan Bond, Hoddle Street gunman Julian Knight and Melbourne identity, Alphonse Gangitano. He was Chair of the Forensic College of the
Australian Psychological Society and a member of an advisory Board at Melbourne
University. Life was good.
It was at a
Party for a QC friend that he realised his world was about to collapse.
Through all
his success, Watson-Munro had been living the double life of a Cocaine addict,
and one with a $2000 a week habit. That afternoon, news came through of the
arrest on drug related charges of well-known criminal lawyer, Andrew Fraser.
Fraser was a regular source of coke for Watson-Munro and he knew immediately he
would be implicated by way of Police intercepts that would have been conducted as part of the
investigation.
He took
pro-active action and presented himself to police and his subsequent guilty plea was met
with a good behaviour bond, a payment to the poor box and no conviction being
recorded.
In his book,
Dancing with Demons: True Life Misadventures of a Criminal Psychologist, he
references the superficiality of the media coverage that greeted his past
success and accompanying so called high achievement life style.
He emphasises that “Accomplishment is a
transitionary phenomenon but connectedness and love for others is not”. Ego
drives us in many ways and all too often the direction it takes us is negative.
Watson-Munro’s states his primary lesson in life as being “to leave your ego in
a box”.
I heard an interview
with Tim Watson-Munro today and he said something else that is most important.
He talked
about his poor decisions perhaps being due in part to a regular environment
of being with criminal elements. He referenced their world perhaps ‘infusing’
in to his noting it is hard not to be affected by those we spend time with.
He still
works in Criminal Psychology but has taken specific steps to balance or
mitigate the effects his work may have upon him.
We are the
product of our environment and by definition, the people within it.
We perhaps
should regularly review who is in our environment and the impact it may
have on us. This could be at work, in our sporting endeavours, friendships and acquaintances
and cross check that our own values are not being compromised. We should also
ensure that such relationships are not simply feeding our egos at the cost of
our core values.
It can be
difficult to perhaps leave a long-standing employer when new people arrive or a
corporate direction changes to such an extent that it now fails to live up to
our own standards. The decision to be made is difficult. Do we compromise and stay, or make the harder decision and leave? To leave is a risk,
but arguably one with a guaranteed return.
The same goes for friends and particularly those acquaintances who are constantly passing through our world.
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