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Doctors and specialists are supposed to have a certain degree of detachment, to be clinical observers. However, many of them take this to extremes, and seem to develop something of a “God” complex. They’re so coldly clinical that they lack the empathy to properly communicate with patients.
Dr. Rob Buckman (the well-known oncologist and humourist, who died last year) became acutely aware of this, while battling the major medical condition that nearly killed him, about 10 years ago. He was so shocked by this lack of empathy, that when he recovered, he set about trying to change these attitudes. Today, an MD’s medical training specifically includes communication & empathy, so that the doctors will encourage patients to get involved and work with the doctor, instead of viewing any patient involvement as a threat to the doctor’s supremacy.
My brother and I are very similar types, on the Myers-Briggs scale. He’s an INTJ (Introverted Intuitive Thinking Judging), and I’m an INFJ (Introverted Intuitive Feeling Judging). These are the two rarest types, with mine being the rarest of all (less than 3% of the population).
We’ve both seen psychologists and psychiatrists at various times (though I’ve done this many, many more times than he has), and we’ve both noticed that we get far more benefit from talking with each other than we’ve ever gotten from talking with psychologists and psychiatrists. When you think how much it costs for an hour with one of these formally trained professionals, you’d expect them to be more effective than talking with a sibling. But in our case, perhaps because we’re both so analytical and intuitive, that’s not the case.
I wonder what would have happened if we’d become psychologists…
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