A medical consultant paused in the middle of a lengthy explanation about a medical condition to ask my friend, the patient, what part of the same organisation they both worked in.

She told them, to find the doctor immediately dismissive, with a smug, “oh, I see” smirk.

The medic then changed tack, talking in much more simple language that my friend felt was more than a tad patronising. She guessed that they’d deemed her not smart enough to fully understand about probability theory and distribution curves in a general population; perhaps lacking in the intelligence needed to understand many of the research studies on her condition that she’d explored before visiting him.

People putting you in a box based on what they think they know about you isn’t kind or helpful. Carl Rogers might have called it being judgemental. I call it downright rude.

But Mr Rogers was a much kinder person than ever I could be.