personality types?

[BlondeDocteur]

I'm an MS3 who's a recent convert to neuro, and as such I've just started to poke around in this forum. For that reason I like to think I have a fresh set of eyes.

One of the things that's most intrigued me about medical school and the residency selection process is the fact that people truly do tend to gravitate towards specialties where their personality type is well-represented. The guys who like to lift and are inordinately fond of Linkin Park... all ortho-bound.

If you read all these residency forums, you get a good picture of what sorts of people go into the specialty. For example, the surgery forums move quickly, posts are short, and are often shockingly funny. The derm forums are empty because they don't give a rat's patootie about helping out other people or giving advice.

And the neuro forum... lots of long posts, well-reasoned positions, and few jokes.

Representative or not?

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[minstral]

i think you(we) read into what you want to see. but I will say in general the groups of neurology attendings and residents I have come across do tend to be a friendly, happy and close bunch. This seemed true at most of the 10 places I interviewed and the 3 places where I did electives.
I dont think you see that in ortho, surgery, FP, and many other fields. People dont "end up" in neuroloy, or choose it for money, or choose it for ego. Hence they chooseit because they like it, know what they are getting into, and the field tends to match peoples expectations n terms of money and lifestyle and pateints.

 

[buckley]

well, there are stereotypes of course...
that being said I just browsed through a book on choosing your medical specialty (I saw it at the bookstore but i did not buy it--i really don't see the need for it, but ok, it was interesting...) and it says there that for an ENTJ, the best fit is Neurology. Cool

i definitely feel that many of the neurologists i've met are extroverted (gotta built that rapport to really do the neuro exam, right?), thinking types (leeeet's localize!) Judging? definitely!

 

[GopherBrain]

...that for an ENTJ, the best fit is Neurology. Cool

Damn. I'm INTJ. I guess I'll have to make it work!

 

[buckley]

Well the chart was formatted in that you look for your MBTI type and you see a listing of the specialties. For all we know an INTJ has neurology as number one too
Just to add, my lowest match was family medicine and ob-gyne---hmmmm, maybe there is something to these things coz I absolutely abhor my rotations in those!

 

[SoulRFlare]

Damn. I'm INTJ. I guess I'll have to make it work!

I guess I'm completely screwed 'cause I'm going into neurosurgery

 

[GopherBrain]

Here is the chart. I guess I am OK...

http://www.gesher.org/Myers-Briggs/MBTI%20Chart and specialty.html

 

[DarthNeurology]

I'm an MS3 who's a recent convert to neuro, and as such I've just started to poke around in this forum. For that reason I like to think I have a fresh set of eyes.

One of the things that's most intrigued me about medical school and the residency selection process is the fact that people truly do tend to gravitate towards specialties where their personality type is well-represented. The guys who like to lift and are inordinately fond of Linkin Park... all ortho-bound.

If you read all these residency forums, you get a good picture of what sorts of people go into the specialty. For example, the surgery forums move quickly, posts are short, and are often shockingly funny. The derm forums are empty because they don't give a rat's patootie about helping out other people or giving advice.

And the neuro forum... lots of long posts, well-reasoned positions, and few jokes.

Representative or not?

No offense, but you seem more like an Ob/Gyn resident than a Neuro resident, they make a lot of little comments and comparisions like this

 

[BlondeDocteur]

You will kindly realize that I spelled all words correctly (and even managed to use some punctuation, which you might take note of). I also spoke about something that could not be found in the pages of People Magazine. That in my experience would definitively rule out ob/gyn.

One of the things I most enjoy about neurologists is that they love to analyze. I think the topic of "what sort of person is a neurologist" would be fun.

//incidentally am also an INTJ

 

[SoulRFlare]

You will kindly realize that I spelled all words correctly (and even managed to use some punctuation, which you might take note of).

Interestingly enough, one of my more memorable experiences on OB as a 3rd year involved being subjected to a grammer lesson because of an inadvertently placed apostrophe in my H&P. I must really be a grammer loser.

 

[BlondeDocteur]

They actually mentioned my "prose" (in a negative sense) in my eval.

 

[CarefreeCFC]

Another 'INTJ' here as well... And to think, it's supposed to be the rarest of the 16 personality types (under 1%). We seem pretty well represented here in Neuro!

You've got to say it makes sense though.

 

[SoulRFlare]

They actually mentioned my "prose" (in a negative sense) in my eval.

i have a suspicion that your prose is thoughtful and insightful...OBs hate and resent that...

 

[bustbones26]

I don't know if I agree with all of this. I for one think that my personality is much different than my colleagues that I work with. But then again, I like this, it makes me a more interesting neurologist.

 

[Sir Elroy]

Heh, according to that, I should be going into Ob/Gyn, and staying far, far away from neurology. Oops. In reality, Ob/Gyn is probably the last field I would do, and I very much enjoy neurology. That said, of all the subjects, I did do best in Ob/Gyn in med school. Hmmm....

Looks like I'm all mixed up. Maybe I should go see some who specializes in brains or something, and get that figured out.

 

[goose121a]

And the neuro forum... lots of long posts, well-reasoned positions, and few jokes.

Representative or not?

Lowly first-year med over here in Ireland but for the last 6 years I was a salesman (not pharma ) calling on neuro depts all over continental USA (pulled the short-straw when AAN was in Hawaii), attending confs (AAN, AES, NCS etc etc), so I'd venture that I've met a fair representation of neurologists.

I'm going to give my vote to the OP as "representative"; nearly to a person extremely nice people but rarely lacking in detail when explaining, well, nearly anything. Multiple sightings of pocket protectors and bow-ties.

Straight-out jokes are sparse and tend to lead with, "Why did the Mac cross the information superhighway?" or variants thereof. More prone to quirky, off-beat, subtle, academically inclined humor.

INTJ well represented, for E-types see, "cardiologist." (My pharma rep buddies would recall nightly dinners at Ruths' Chris wine choices long on expensive red). I seriously think I took exactly one neurologist out to dinner in 6 years on my expense account and not for lack of trying, trust me).

My two-cents from another perspective.

A reformed salesman

PS - I'm strongly leaning toward Neuro down the road, loved my time and the people in the depts, definitely influenced my decision to go back to school.

 

[BlondeDocteur]

fascinating, goose. That's been my experience as well... it's remarkable how birds of a feather do, indeed, flock together.

 

[Pembleton]

I'm working with two neurologists and it seems like the stereotype mentioned in the posts above has some bearing. What I'm curious about is if future neurologists are indeed the nerdy, cerebral type, why are their average Step 1 scores on the lower side of the spectrum? I'm not trying to start a flame war, I was just curious about the discrepency between the image of the nerdy neurologist and the relatively low average Step 1 score.

 

[GopherBrain]

I'm not trying to start a flame war, I was just curious about the discrepency between the image of the nerdy neurologist and the relatively low average Step 1 score.

I'll take you at face value at that whole not intending to flame thing... However, I think the characterization of "relatively low average Step 1 score" isn't very generous. However it is true that the average score is lower than say derm, which isn't generally thought of as a specialty full of deep thinkers. I think there is a disconnect between the analytical minds and the memorizers.

I mean, there is smart like Bertrand Russell (or Stan Prusiner to stay with a science/neurology reference) and there is smart like Ken Jennings (the Jeopardy champion guy). I think that high USMLE scores correlate better with the latter than the former.

 

[buckley]

I mean, there is smart like Bertrand Russell (or Stan Prusiner to stay with a science/neurology reference) and there is smart like Ken Jennings (the Jeopardy champion guy).

Wow...i wonder where I am in...
I just don't want to be the dumb neurologist, that would just be senseless

 

[BlondeDocteur]

Good points Gopher... a love of analysis does not mean a deep and abiding love of everything one encounters in the first two years of medical school. I am firmly convinced that doing well on standardized exams which test objective information, such as the USMLE (as opposed to a reasoning test like the SAT) is based more on willpower than on intellect. If you're gunning for derm and neurosug, you'll sit down and review the urea cycle for 14 hours a day. That has everything to do with practicality and nothing to do with a fascination with the knowledge therein.

 

[bustbones26]

I'm working with two neurologists and it seems like the stereotype mentioned in the posts above has some bearing. What I'm curious about is if future neurologists are indeed the nerdy, cerebral type, why are their average Step 1 scores on the lower side of the spectrum? I'm not trying to start a flame war, I was just curious about the discrepency between the image of the nerdy neurologist and the relatively low average Step 1 score.

Neurology is not a competitive specialty. That being said, if a person did have low scores, they stand a chance of getting into a neuro progam. However, that is not to say that every person in neurology fits this bill.

My opinion is this, back in the old days of neurology, when there was no MRI/CT, you had to rely on the good old neuro exam. And of course, there were many great neurologist of that time. This is likley were the stereotype of cerebral/nerdy neurologist comes from.

 

[neurologist]

Heh. This is a funny thread.

I'm an INTP (also highly represented in neuro). Subscore-wise, I'm very high in the "I" but only borderline in the "NTP" categories. Reading the type descriptions, I think I probably ought to have come out as an "ISFP."

Maybe because of my relatively weak "NTP" levels, I find that many of my fellow neurologists just drive me nuts. While I find all the neuroanatomy stuff interesting, I think many of my esteemed colleagues spend way too much time overanalyzing. I take a much more practical "here's-the-problem-and- here's-what-we-can-do-and-no-I-don't-care-about-the-connections-between-the-subceruleus-nucleus-and-the-reticular-thalamic-nuclei." This will obviously never catapult me to the upper ranks of academia, but I think I do pretty well by my patients, and I have often been told by them that I explain things so they actually understand stuff now. That's what matters to me more.

I do like those neurologists with dry, somewhat cynical senses of humor. They make my day. Sometimes you have to get them out of the flow of the day for their "Dr House" tendencies to surface, but they are there . . . the wonky/technogeek types don't cut it with me.

The bowties, BTW, absolutely drive me nuts . . .

 

[BlondeDocteur]

Do... Something?

What are you talking about?

And why did you interrupt me.. we're only 3 hours into rounds... it's not time for noon conference yet?

 

[bustbones26]

I once went to this MS conference. There was a person lecturing of treating the symptoms of MS. He has mentioned that for women with loss of sensation in the perineal region, a frozen bag of peas usually aided as a form of sexual stimulation.

A person in the audience asked where the evidence behind this was??

I promptly called up a friend of mine and we proceeded to have a discussion about masturbation. We weren't exactly sure if it was truly better to use your left or right hand since nobody has ever really studied this. Then again, if they had, we could not find any publications on a meta-analysis.

Sometimes this is how I view a typical neurologist. And on somedays, I cannot believe I belong to this group of people.

 

[neurologist]

He has mentioned that for women with loss of sensation in the perineal region, a frozen bag of peas usually aided as a form of sexual stimulation.

Maybe this is the origin of the word "pea"nis?

 

[buckley]

I promptly called up a friend of mine and we proceeded to have a discussion about masturbation. We weren't exactly sure if it was truly better to use your left or right hand since nobody has ever really studied this. Then again, if they had, we could not find any publications on a meta-analysis.

Sometimes this is how I view a typical neurologist. And on somedays, I cannot believe I belong to this group of people.

to be honest, i find many neurologists i know as having absolutely nothing in common with me and i am afraid to find out if we do have anything in common...one girl was just too weird to describe...but then again, i think, for all i know that's exactly how they feel about me too!

but, see, that's what i love about neuro, people go here because they love the field. Nothing more. Nothing less. It's not the paycheck. It's not the lifestyle.

 

[beachpotato]

I'm an INTP and interested in ENT (among neurology and other things), but am not sure what about it would make it rank relatively highly for NTs. Thoughts?