Why
go into Psychiatry?
By John Tennison, M.D.,
Psychiatrist, and Former Chief-Resident Physician in Psychiatry at the
University of
To
answer the question of "Why go into psychiatry?,"
it is helpful to first answer the question of "Why go to medical
school?"?Of course, the easiest
answer to this question is, "because medical school completion is required
to gain admission to a psychiatric residency!"?In fact Solomon Snyder, a brilliant
scientist, psychiatrist, and chairman of the Department of Neurosciences at
Johns Hopkins wrote, "patek philippe replica sale In college I was far better at writing and
philosophy than at science, but like many of my friends, I chose to pursue a
premedical major; philosophy is hardly a proper vocation for a nice Jewish
boy.?Although I did not particularly
look forward to medical school, I did see it as a vehicle to gain admission to
psychiatric residency training, and that is where I had set my sights. rado replica sale In
medical school, I eagerly absorbed everything my books and teachers could tell
me about the brain, but I approached the rest of my courses perfunctorily at
best. cartier replica sale One other subject did catch my fancy, however, and that was pharmacology.
hublot replica I found it incredible that simple chemical molecules could bring about such
profound changes in the human body, and I was intrigued by the disparity
between how drugs were used and what was actually known about them: drugs have
long been the primary means of treating most diseases, yet until recently physicians
have had little understanding of how most pharmacological agents exerted their
therapeutic effects. fake breitling sale Needless to say, any drug that affected the brain struck
me as being especially interesting."?
(from Drugs and the Brain, Scientific American
Library, 1986)
In
addition to Snyder's justification for attending medical school, it makes sense
to consider what benefits medical school offers over and beyond being a
necessary pathway to psychiatric training.?
Depending on the values of who you ask, you will invariably get a
multitude of answers to this question.?
For example, if your passion is for general clinical medicine, you might
very well find all of the traditional medical-school
curriculum to be interesting.?However,
if you are driven more by timeless philosophical questions regarding
existential issues, mind-body relationships, ultimate truth, etc., you might
see the required memorization and dehumanizing workload of medical school to be
necessary evils on the way to getting at the people, places, things, or ideas
that truly interest you.?For those with
such broad interests, the most desirable medical schools will be those that
have the most flexible curriculums, the fewest required courses, and that
encourage you to think for yourself, rather than use you primarily as a grunt
to get work done.?Moreover, it is best
to attend a medical school with as many classes AND clinical rotations graded
on a pass/fail basis as possible.?In
doing so, you will avoid putting yourself in a position of feeling pressured to
OVER-memorize minutia that has virtually no value to you or your patients.?(Don't worry -- even medical schools with
pass/fail grading are "standardized" enough to prepare you to pass
the national USMLE boards required for licensure in the
Even
if one did not go on to complete a psychiatry residency, a medical-school
education by itself is among the best liberal-arts educations available from a
single degree program within the
The
liberal arts value of a medical education can be further enhanced by attending
a medical school that is part of a larger university that will let you take
courses offered at the other non-medical schools that make up the
university.?Being enrolled at a medical
school at a university offering an on-campus training hospital, extensive
undergraduate and graduate degrees, a law school, a business school, and, if
possible, other graduate/professional programs is optimal.?There are some universities that have these
resources spread over several campuses.?
However, the best arrangement is to have the time-saving convenience and
inter-departmental collaboration that result from having all of these resources
on a single campus.?My word for such a
campus is ?span class=SpellE>geccun??my acronym for ?/span>GEographically
To
address the question of why one would choose a psychiatric residency over
training in another medical specialty, it is helpful to examine the breadth of
issues that define psychiatry.?It is
also helpful to compare psychiatry to two closely-related fields:?neurology and psychology.?For example, both psychiatrists and
neurologists are interested in neuronal processes.?Consequently, the same certifying board
accredits both psychiatrists and neurologists.?
However, psychiatrists more often focus their attention on neuronal
processes that have a bearing on the quality of someone’s experience over a
lifetime.?For example, a psychiatrist
tends to be less interested than a neurologist in the behavior of a neuron in
someone’s big toe, unless that neuron is doing something that impinges on
experience, such as causing pain.?Thus,
a psychiatrist can be thought of as a psychologically-minded neurologist,
someone who is especially concerned with neuronal processes that have a strong
bearing on how you feel, think, and behave.
?In addition to emphasizing neuronal
processes that influence subjective experience, psychiatry residencies are
distinguished from neurology residencies by requiring psychiatry residents to
undergo training in five forms of psychotherapy.?It is in this area that psychiatry has
overlap with psychology.?The emphasis on
psychotherapy recognizes the fact that many things other than neuronal
processes contribute to mental health.
A good psychiatrist eclectically seeks to learn all factors than
impinge on a person’s mental health, including social, environmental, cultural,
political, and religious influences.?
Psychiatrists are legally empowered to use all treatment and assessment
modalities available to psychologists, including psychological testing.?However, psychiatrists also have expertise in
human physiology, pharmacology, and licensure to prescribe medication.?Thus,
given their medical-school background, a psychiatrist could be thought of as a
physiologically-trained psychologist.
?Whereas some medical specialties are
only now beginning to emphasize spirituality and creativity in their practices,
psychiatrists have been doing so for many years.?The work of psychiatrist Carl Jung
exemplifies psychiatry’s strong historical emphasis on spirituality and
creativity.?
?Ideas from psychiatry have
considerably influenced our culture and the media, and provided subject matter
for some of the greatest films, music, literature, and art ever produced.?Ron Howard’s Academy-Award-Winning Best
Picture, “A Beautiful Mind,?demonstrates how fascinating, and yet tragic,
mental illness can be.?HBO’s “The
Sopranos?portrays an entertaining account of what psychotherapy for a Mafia boss
might look like.?The word, “psychedelic,?
was coined by psychiatrist, Humphrey Osmond, and has been used by many to
describe musical, visual, cultural, and political movements that emerged in the
1960s and continue to this day.
Psychiatrists are interested in far more than mental illness.?Consequently, psychiatrists do far more than
treat mental illness alone.?There are
currently seven board-certifiable subspecializations
within psychiatry:?Psychosomatic
(Mind-Body) Medicine, Clinical Neurophysiology, Pain Management, Forensic
Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry, and
Geriatric Psychiatry.?Other subspecializations of psychiatry include Sports Psychiatry,
Preventive Psychiatry, and Transpersonal Psychiatry.
Modern psychiatrists are well-grounded in science, as evidenced by
psychiatrist Eric Kandell having won the Nobel Prize
in 2001.?For example, the
For
careers focusing on subjective human experiences or social interactions,
completing a psychiatry residency builds further upon the liberal-arts
foundation of a medical-school education.?
For example, the ability to see through duplicitousness
is a skill developed during psychiatry residency training.?This skill has been extremely useful for Jim McDermott, the psychiatrist in congress who contributed his
astute commentary and insights to Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11,"
to date the highest grossing documentary of all time.?Other physicians apply the liberal-arts
foundation of a medical education to the arts, as evidenced Michael Crichton’s numerous novels and screenplays for television
programs and movies.?Still another
example comes from psychiatrist Fred Goodwin's excellent radio program,
"The Infinite Mind," as heard on National Public Radio.?Goodwin’s program provides fascinating
insights that do not necessarily focus on “pathology,?yet always help us to
better understand the human condition.
Psychiatry has more in common with the formal discipline of
philosophy than any other medical specialty.?
For example, Louis O. Kattsoff wrote that
philosophy “examines the foundations of other studies.?It asks the social scientist what he believes
to be the nature of man.?It asks the
physical scientist why he uses the scientific method.?Philosophy seeks to organize the results of
the various sciences to show the many ways in which they are related.?span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>?In a similar vein, Henry Sidgwick
has noted, “It is the primary aim of philosophy to unify completely all
departments of rational thought.?span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>?
Consequently, because of its eclecticism, psychiatry is easily the most
"philosophical" of all medical specialties.?Put another way, psychiatry exists where
medicine and philosophy intersect.
?Another strong connection that
psychiatry has to philosophy is in determining what to label as “psychotic?or
“delusional.?span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>?Psychiatrists make daily practical
application of philosophy by asking the timeless ontological questions of “what
is real?,?“what is not real?,?“what exists?,?“what
does not exist?,?and “what are our criteria for determining whether or not we
regard something as ‘real?or having ‘existence?,?etc.?The way psychiatrists articulate answers to
these questions has substantial affects on the attitudes and value judgments
that society makes about patients who are having unusual experiences or who
make unusual claims.?This ontological
role of psychiatrists can potentially be harmful if psychiatrists are not
extremely careful in what they label as “psychotic?or “delusional.?span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>?For example, imagine if the Wright Brothers ?
after claiming they would achieve human flight ?had been locked away in a
psychiatric hospital as a result of a psychiatrist believing the Wright
Brothers were a danger to themselves and/or others.?Clearly, psychiatrists have a great
responsibility to exercise caution, sensitivity, precision, and empathy when dealing
with ontological issues.
Having visited and spoken with residents and faculty across the
nation from Harvard to Stanford, I have come to believe
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