Lögberg-Heimskringla - 14.07.2006, Side 2

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David Jón Fuller
Psychologist Dr. Eliza-beth Carr counts it lucky she didn’t take the intro
psych class fi rst in college.
Elizabeth, the daughter of
Jim and Trish Skaptason of Oak
Hill, VA, currently works as a
clinical psychologist in Gaith-
ersburg, MD. She lives with her
husband Russ and two-year-old
son Nathaniel in the Maryland
suburb of Montgomery County,
outside of Washington, D.C. It
was when she served as a psy-
chologist in the U.S. Navy that
she met her husband.
She has also taught English
in Japan, and credits not doing
everything in the “right” order
for her success as a psycholo-
gist.
When in college, she took a
couple of more advanced psy-
chology courses as electives.
She was later surprised that the
intro class wasn’t as interest-
ing.
“I think a lot of people
take [the intro course] because
we’re all interested in what
makes people tick and why do
people do the things they do in
terms of motivation, and why
do our own families do the
strange things that they do,” she
says. “We’re all interested in
that kind of thing. But then of-
tentimes ‘Intro to Pyschology’
tends to be about rats in mazes
and a lot of things that don’t re-
ally answer those fundamental
questions about people.
“I guess I consider myself
lucky in retrospect that I took
classes out of order, because it
gave me a chance to really start
looking right away at the things
that I was curious about.”
Her father had encouraged
her to become a computer pro-
grammer, but after trying it, she
decided to pursue psychology.
“I did my undergraduate
degree and knew when I gradu-
ated from college that I was
interested in being a psycho-
therapist,” Elizabeth says. “But
I also realized that I was way
too young and immature to be
a psychotherapist.”
She took time to try other
things, such as living in Japan
for a year.
“One thing that was in-
teresting is that culturally, I
think, compared to Americans,
the Japanese were very much
group-oriented,” she says. “If
people were on a train with a
bag of groceries, they would
put that bag of groceries on
their lap. They wouldn’t pre-
sume to put it in an empty seat
beside them, because their per-
spective is more group-orient-
ed; somebody else might need
that seat. Whereas Americans
tend to plop their stuff down
beside them and kind of look at
you like, ‘I dare you to ask me
to move my stuff.’”
After returning to the U.S.,
Elizabeth served as an offi cer in
the Navy, where she worked for
six years. People came to her
with a variety of problems.
Some, who decided military
life wasn’t for them, would try
to plead psychological reasons
for early discharge, including
suicidal tendencies.
“Some people, usually
straight guys, will try to claim
that they’re gay,” she says with
a chuckle. “A sort of ‘malin-
gered homosexuality,’ is what I
call it. I had this one kid who
came in and told me that, and
because of the Navy’s whole
‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy,
he thought he would just get
out [early]. It was so obvious.
I said, ‘You know, I don’t think
you are gay. And if you are
that’s a legal issue, it’s not con-
sidered a psychiatric condition,
so you need to go to Legal. But
I think you should think twice
about it.’”
Elizabeth left the navy two
years ago and when her son
was born. She currently has
a private practice, which she
started in April this year. She is
particularly interested in work-
ing with couples going through
divorce. She has seen many
adults living with the scars of
their parents’ divorce, and by
helping divorcing couples deal
with each other in a positive
way, she hopes to prevent their
children from experiencing that
kind of damage.
Icelandic heritage has also
been a factor in her career. Her
client-centred approach to her
patients, which is a very collab-
orative orientation, may have
been infl uenced by her own
family dynamics.
“I think when a culture is
infl uenced by a particular reli-
gion, then it seeps into the whole
worldview of the individuals of
that group. And I suspect that
groups that are more infl uenced
by decentralized religious af-
fi liations tend to have a more
decentralized approach to life
in general.” The Lutheran back-
ground of most Icelandic de-
scendants, she speculates, may
have resulted in a similarly “de-
centralized” sensibility.
She also remembers in
school, when learning about
cultural diversity, that “white”
families were supposed to be
more focused on the nuclear
family, as opposed to other eth-
nic groups.
That didn’t fi t with Eliza-
beth’s experience. “My Icelan-
dic side of the family was much
stronger in terms of a connec-
tion to the extended family, and
in my experience that side of my
family has been tremendously
helpful and supportive for me,
many many times throughout
my career development.” She
mentions help putting up her
business website, proofreading
articles she writes for a local
newspaper, and even room and
board when she was a student
as examples.
“They are very, very sup-
portive in that regard.”
2 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 14 July 2006
PHOTO: DAVID JÓN FULLER
Dr. Elizabeth Carr visited Winnipeg, MB recently for a family
reunion co-sponsored by her grandfather Skip Skaptason of
Overland Park, KS.
Dr. Elizabeth Carr helps patients help themselves
Greetings from
Gordon J. Reykdal
Honorary Consul of the
Republic of Iceland
17703 - 103 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta
T5S 1N8
Tel: (780) 408-5118
Fax: (708) 408-5122
E-mail: gord@rentcash.ca
ARGYLE
Transfer Ltd.
Specializing
in livestock transportation
Wally & Linda Finnbogason
Stonewall, MB
Wally 467-8822 Mobile 981-1666
Daryl 322-5743 Mobile 981-5460
GIMLI, MB — A new
travelling exhibit, “Iceland’s
Literary Legacy” opened at
the New Iceland Heritage
Museum this spring. The ex-
hibit traces the development
of literature in Iceland from
the earliest examples, includ-
ing the sagas, poetry, and
modern literature, which has
established itself on the world
stage. Also included are
glimpses of how modern arts
such as recorded music and
fi lm have been infl uenced by
this long tradition of literacy.
Examples of Icelandic
books published in North
America are also on display.
A new addition to the exhibit
will feature newspapers, mag-
azines and other periodicals
on loan from Lögberg-Heim-
skringla.
“Iceland’s Literary Lega-
cy” runs until September 5.
Icelandic literature at NIHM
PHOTO: DAVID JÓN FULLER
NIHM Director Tammy Axelsson at the new exhibit.
A collaborative approach