I've been watching the first season of House, and it's made me realise how much respect I have for doctors. Not people like House, brilliant though he may be, but doctors and surgeons in general. I'm a quesy person - I can't watch any "medical" show (drama or otherwise) that shows any kind of surgery or operation, no matter how minor. That's why I have the utmost respect for people who can deal with that kind of thing, because I simply can't imagine it. They also have probably one of the most important jobs, because they help save and deliver lives, which requires incredible strength of character and ability. I think what they do is amazing. Of course, it's devastating to hear about "Dr Deaths," but fortunately, not all doctors are like that.
I know I have several readers who are med students. So tell me; why do you want to become doctors?
x
JAG
4 comments:
Greetings my love-noodle!
Long time, no comment! I know I know, I'm a terrible correspondent. But I do occasionally skulk around and have a squiz at what you're fighting for.
On this topic of doctors etc., though I cannot give you a med student's perspective, I can tell you that as a psych student, I am not studying it because I want to help people (cold-hearted as that sounds, it's true). I study psych because I am interested in people, I am interested in how they work, what they think, why they break and what happens when they do. If I had got the marks at school, I probably would have studied med, but again, I my interest in medicine is purely intellectual - to be honest I cannot afford to spend emotional energy on people and things that will not reward me in some way. I know it sounds so very greedy and bitchy, but it is my honest opinion. I think actually (but maybe I'm just a cynic) that no doctor or shrink can honestly care about their patient, they must distance themselves, particularly in psychology where the people who you are treating can be very corrosive. You must care for patients on a professional level, but you cannot let them enter your emotional world.
Perhaps then you should see it as a good thing that you cannot handle blood and guts and gore. I think it says something about how much you can let a complete stranger into your life and how much you are willing to give such a person. I can watch human dissections, operations, read about appalling afflictions of the mind and body and be fascinated by it, but these people are objects to me, there for my intellectual benefit. You are there for them.
Love noodle?! Ha ha.
You sound a lot like House. ;-) Thanks, though. That's a very interesting perspective. I would love to have done psych, it fascinates me, but I don't know if I'd be able to partake in the field, so to speak. Probably because I am so emotional. =)
x
JAG
If you are interested in some psych, I have a book you might like to read called The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat. You may have heard of it, its quite famous, by Oliver Sacks (my HERO!). Its a collection of case studies of people he's treated or observed who have very interesting disorders - people who cannot understand words, people with very aggravated tic disorders, or an inability to recognise faces... One of the most tragic I think is the second case study where his patient is a man who is about 45, has perfect memory of his early life but since the age of about 21 has been unable to remember anything that has happened more than 5 minutes previously. He doesn't realise that there's anything wrong with him because he cannot remember forgetting anything - if that makes sense.
Anyway, get involved, Oliver Sacks, also discovered the treatment for Parkinson's Disease. Or Stephen Pinker, another one of my heroes, and another fantastic writer.
Sound like House hey? I'm slightly worried about that... My mama is enough of a sociopath, hopefully it isn't too hereditary. However, I do seem to be inheriting more and more of her lovely mental traits - they are considering putting me on mood stabilisers. Huzzah for Bi-polarity!
XOXO
P
I think I have heard of the book! Wow. Sounds very interesting.
And I do know Stephen Pinker, we debated his theory of gender last semester in Eco History.
I only meant you sound like House in a kind of cynical, distanced from patients kind of way. But you're much nicer than he is. ;-)
Aw really? *hugs* Unlike House - and your mother - you're not a sociopath, nor are you going to become one.
x
JAG
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