A Call for Greater Self-awareness in the Health-care Professions

     "... there is no doubt that compulsiveness is the hallmark of the physician's personality. In a poll of 100 randomly selected physicians, ... all 100 declared themselves to be 'compulsive personalities.' Eighty percent possessed three of the five criteria for the diagnosis given in the DSM3, while 20% satisfied four of the five criteria, which include 

     • restricted ability to express warm & tender emotions,

     • perfectionism, 

     • insistence that others submit to one's way of doing things, 

     • excessive devotion to work & productivity to the exclusion of pleasure & the value of  interpersonal relationships, &

     • indecisiveness. 

     While it would be an exaggeration of the truth to declare that all physicians are diagnosable as having compulsive personality disorders, it is probably accurate to assert that compulsive traits are present in the majority of those individuals who seek out medicine as a profession. Hence, the normal physician may be described as a compulsive physician.

     ... another grand paradox on which to reflect is that those individuals (ie we) who are so vulnerable to feelings of helplessness choose a profession where they are repeatedly reminded of their inherent impotence in the face of disease and death."
 
       Gabbard GO. The role of compulsiveness in the normal physician. JAMA 1985; 254(20): 2926-9.

     Existential issues in healthcare: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/search?q=existential

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