The Royal College of Psychiatry invited me to speak at their annual conference. I got to visit the U.K. for the first time; met many interesting people; did the tourist thing; and they paid my expenses. How could I refuse?
Being a curious sort, I asked my hosts why their organization is called the "royal" college of psychiatry, as opposed to the "British" College. Could anybody call themselves "royal" ? In America, for example, I could open a hamburger stand and call it the "President's" burgers.
My hosts explained that to call your organization "royal" you had to apply for a charter from the Royal family. Further, they assigned a member of the family to be the patron for the organization. Prince Carless is the patron for the Royal College of Psychiatry, and he flew in via helicopter to speak to the conference.
On the morning of the Prince's talk, I got to the room early and sat in the second row of seats. I am going to be only a few feet from the Prince when he arrives. "Wow," I am thinking, "this beats going to the U.K. as a tourist." Wait a minute, I am going to be only a few feet from the Prince and nobody frisked me. In fact I couldn't see any security officers walking around.
Fifteen minutes before his talk the nobles entered the room and sat in the first row of chairs. Then the press entered and sat on the floor in front of the nobles. I sat right behind the nobles.
He entered the room, went to the front, and sat in his chair waiting for the session to begin. I just stared at him. What kind of socks does a prince wear? Look at his shirt! His haircut. Then I realized I was gawking. I looked around the room and most people were gawking. Suddenly it struck me how awkward I would feel if everybody stared at me like we were staring at Charles. I looked over at the Prince and he was taking it in with dignity, as if it were natural that people would stare at him.
That is how I came to realize the primal connection between status and attention. We pay attention to people who have high status, and we ignore those who are low status. By definition, royals are the highest possible social status after the divine. Hence we gawk at royals, and they think it normal that we do so.
Charles gave a very good speech. He suggested that the stigma of mental illness rubs off on the doctors who serve this population. Hence psychiatry is a low status medical profession. "Good thinking for a prince," I thought to myself.
When the Prince completed his talk and the session was wrapping up, a British soldier dressed a lot like U.,S. special forces told the audience they had moved our luggage out of the hotel sleeping rooms and into the lobby. I went there to get my luggage, opened it up, and there was a note from the U.K. secret police informing me they inspected my bags. I guess there was security after all, but it was so good I didn't notice it until they sent me a written note.