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What’s the personality of a psychiatrist?


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Several of my preceptors have told me that they think I have a “ psychiatrist “ personality, and they see me as a psychiatrist. I was wondering what personalities do psychiatrists have? I have not done my rotation in psychiatry yet and I don’t think I am very interested in it but was just curious what personality traits people associate with psychiatrists :) !!

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Might be a good question to ask your preceptors? I would think of a psychiatrist as someone who is less drawn to the procedural aspects of medicine, but that could apply to many non-surgical disciplines. I don't think I could peg someone as a future psychiatrist unless they spoke to me about their interest in personality, mental health, etc.

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1 hour ago, Maja D said:

Several of my preceptors have told me that they think I have a “ psychiatrist “ personality, and they see me as a psychiatrist. I was wondering what personalities do psychiatrists have? I have not done my rotation in psychiatry yet and I don’t think I am very interested in it but was just curious what personality traits people associate with psychiatrists :) !!

I used to think of one of my classmates as having a "psychiatry" personality as she had a very calming tone, appropriate pace of speech, genuinely cared for her patients and saw the good in every patient. She did not end up going into psychiatry though. 

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Hmm, that should be what everyone in medicine should aim for (except for the very calming tone - an even tone will suffice). Someone who doesn't do the above will certainly have a greater number of misunderstandings and difficult interactions with patients.

(The one field that a "very calming tone" does make me think of is social worker, though that's undoubtedly influenced by the first person I met in this role when I was in university.)

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I find that psychiatrists come in different flavours, but are often on the whole more artsy, more liberal, and more quirky compared to other docs. Often like to think about and process things at length, talk over all different angles even after a decision has been made. Tend to like to talk about feelings. Lots of consensus building. 

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On 9/11/2019 at 6:16 PM, ellorie said:

I find that psychiatrists come in different flavours, but are often on the whole more artsy, more liberal, and more quirky compared to other docs. Often like to think about and process things at length, talk over all different angles even after a decision has been made. Tend to like to talk about feelings. Lots of consensus building. 

This sounds pretty spot on

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Psychiatrists have incredible patience that amazes me. I could never imagine managing chronic psychiatric issues that wax and wane, and respond to medications today but not tomorrow, plus all the social work issues. To use an analogy, they're like Handel's opera, a lot of chit chat and good music writing, but the plot goes nowhere; I prefer Verdi.

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Honestly, every psychiatrist and psych trainee that I know is so different I don’t know how you’d lump them in one pot as a “psychiatrist” personality. 

While @ellorie makes some good points, I disagree about most being artsy and quirky. I would say we are an overall eclectic group, not unlike family doctors. There is a lot less in common amongst us than, say, surgeons.

We also have many in our ranks who were previously internists or family docs or paediatricians or pathologists who retrained (not just because they were IMG and couldn’t match to their previous specialty).

like I said, eclectic. 

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