A shrink at a mixer...

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sideways

sideways

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What's the most common questions you get asked in your everyday social life when people find out you're a psychiatrist?

Also, how do people typically respond when hearing you're a psychiatrist?
 
sideways said:
What's the most common questions you get asked in your everyday social life when people find out you're a psychiatrist?

Also, how do people typically respond when hearing you're a psychiatrist?
Click to expand...

"Boy do I know a few people [at work, in my wife's family, etc...🙄] who need to talk to YOU!"
 
"You're the person I need! You could get rich offa me! Hey, [friend/significant other], did you know Sunlioness is a shrink?"

And less frequently:

"Are you analyzing me right now?"

My favorite is when I am out with my father and he tells people what I do. And then punctuates it with "and if you get to know me, then you'll know why!" 😉
 
whopper said:
I've gotten all the above.

I also get people who think I can somehow read their mind and know their dirtiest secrets just by looking at them-which I sometimes twist into a joke.

I'll given them a curious stare...

http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images/2008-03/spock-raise-one-eyebrow.jpg

And then tell them I know their secrets.
Click to expand...

My favorite mind-reading trick: if I'm getting a whiff of OCPD in someone (pre-test probability 😀), I'll ask "Are your spices alphabetized?"
50% hit rate...
 
whopper said:
I've gotten all the above.

I also get people who think I can somehow read their mind and know their dirtiest secrets just by looking at them-which I sometimes twist into a joke.

I'll given them a curious stare...



And then tell them I know their secrets.
Click to expand...

Funny you mention that stare. I was wondering if they teach it in residency.
 
sideways said:
Funny you mention that stare. I was wondering if they teach it in residency.
Click to expand...



sigmund-freud-cocaine-addict.jpg
 
If you really want to screw with someone...(along the lines of what OPD mentioned)...

Tell them that as part of your psychiatric training you can read minds.

http://www.indianchild.com/strange.htm

Do the trick in the above link. I've found from personal experience that an overwhelming majority answer carrot. I don't know if its 98%, but it's a majority, enough to make this trick worth it.

Then, after you tell them you know they thought of a carrot, start going a bit deeper.

E.g., start telling a guy, who is not homosexual, that you are noticing some homosexual thoughts. Mention a famous handsome celebirty that you know the guy's mentioned at least once.

e.g. If the guy's a football fan, mentioned the quarterback of his favorite team.

"I know you've been thinking about this guy. I'm detecting there's something rather deep about this."

Be careful with this type of joke. It is pure evil in the wrong hands. Do it only to someone you know can take a joke.

When I was a psychology major in college, I did the old "I'm a psychologist, I can read your mind, to a buddy of mine who was homophobic. To make a very long story short, he actually started to believe he was homosexual, based on some very innocuous and irrelevant data (ever notice you're the only guy on the floor with red shorts? Think about that. Red is the color of Mars, the ultimate sign of masculinity, and you choose to put red around your genitalia and buttocks. Think about it. No other guy on this floor had red shorts except for you, but plenty of girls in the dorm have red shorts. Think about it.)

Later that night he was about to call his parents to out himself, and he was questioning his sexuality. I'm not joking. A very evil joke, though at the time, me being 18, I rationalized it was alright because he was trying to get the floor to bully someone he thought was homosexual.
 
whopper said:
If you really want to screw with someone...(along the lines of what OPD mentioned)...

Tell them that as part of your psychiatric training you can read minds.

http://www.indianchild.com/strange.htm

Do the trick in the above link. I've found from personal experience that an overwhelming majority answer carrot. I don't know if its 98%, but it's a majority, enough to make this trick worth it.

Then, after you tell them you know they thought of a carrot, start going a bit deeper.

E.g., start telling a guy, who is not homosexual, that you are noticing some homosexual thoughts. Mention a famous handsome celebirty that you know the guy's mentioned at least once.

e.g. If the guy's a football fan, mentioned the quarterback of his favorite team.

"I know you've been thinking about this guy. I'm detecting there's something rather deep about this."

Be careful with this type of joke. It is pure evil in the wrong hands. Do it only to someone you know can take a joke.

When I was a psychology major in college, I did the old "I'm a psychologist, I can read your mind, to a buddy of mine who was homophobic. To make a very long story short, he actually started to believe he was homosexual, based on some very innocuous and irrelevant data (ever notice you're the only guy on the floor with red shorts? Think about that. Red is the color of Mars, the ultimate sign of masculinity, and you choose to put red around your genitalia and buttocks. Think about it. No other guy on this floor had red shorts except for you, but plenty of girls in the dorm have red shorts. Think about it.)

Later that night he was about to call his parents to out himself, and he was questioning his sexuality. I'm not joking. A very evil joke, though at the time, me being 18, I rationalized it was alright because he was trying to get the floor to bully someone he thought was homosexual.
Click to expand...
Does that really work verbally? Or is it the orange color of the webpage?
 
whopper said:
I tried it verbally.

I usually get the carrot answer, though it wasn't on the order of 98%. More like on the order of 4/5.
Click to expand...

I think it works on that particular webpage because the background is orange. It reminds me of a carrot.
 
I wonder it there's an added factor of the number 6 and carrot having 6 letters. Should try it with non-English speakers....
Click to expand...

My own theory is it's a combination of carrot being easy to pronounce (vs. broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower), having easy syllables (e.g. a hard "k"), it's a phallic symbol, it's not a food that lies between possibly more than one category (e.g. sweet potatoes are considered by some but not others to be a vegetable, tomatoes are actually fruits but people intuitively put it as a vegetable), and it's more readily available vs other vegetables.

When I first heard about the carrot trick, I got the information in a chain-e-mail. It contained 2 other tricks.

The other one was something to the effect of having the person do a bunch of mathematical calculations. Then immediately you ask them to think of a number between one and 10. The number usually picked is a 7.

If I remember correctly, there was something about it that I'm not remembering that made the trick work often.

The other one---I forgot.

I remember in college, getting people answering all three out of three tricks in the manner where it worked quite often, then doing the, "I can read your mind, you're trying to hide something" joke.

The other evil joke, but I never did it because I thought it was too evil was...

At a party, if there's someone everyone knows will be late, when that person shows up, no one is allowed to talk to that person. If that person says anything like "hey, what's going on, why is no one talking to me?" everyone at the party has to look at the person, and laugh, then take a drink.

If the person has any social anxiety or paranoia, then the person's anxiety and paranoia will likely skyrocket, and they'll repeat the question, now with anger or anxiety in their voice. Then everyone is supposed to do it again--stare and take a drink.

If the trick is supposed to work, the person within a few seconds will likely act out.

Now this is a joke I never recommend because if the person is susceptible to this joke, they'll most likely not be able to take the joke. It's a joke where you're laughing at the person, not with them. It's certainly cruel so for that reason I never executed it.
 
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Slightly off topic, but here's a mind-reading website.

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/esp.html

After you've taken the test, please check out the posted possible answers.
If you do understand exactly how the website reads your mind, please Don't post the answer here.
 
I figured it out almost immediately. Not because I am so smart, but because I've encountered this type of trick before.

What I find interesting are people's theories as to how it works. It really is very simple! Some of them suggest things like subliminal information or other ideas.
 
You mean there is a reasonable explanation for this? I was getting worried for a second that I was starting to show signs of being possessed. I suppose I can cancel my exorcism appointment with the shaman?
 
Sneezing said:
You mean there is a reasonable explanation for this? I was getting worried for a second that I was starting to show signs of being possessed. I suppose I can cancel my exorcism appointment with the shaman?
Click to expand...

I didn't think you were the type to see a mid-level for an exorcism.
 
You are right. I should have scheduled with a Roman Catholic Priest. They have a more formal education process, longer years of training, more experience, more devotion to their field, and simply exemplify qualify. What was I thinking!!
 
If you can't figure it out, PM me if you want the solution.

Unless that is, Kugel thinks we should keep people here in suspense?

I'll give a hint. It all has to do with thinking outside the box.

Ever do the connect the 9 dots with 4 lines problem?

http://www.psywww.com/intropsych/ch..._outside_the_box__with_the_9-dot_problem.html

The solution is really thinking outside the box. If you can do that, you're halfway there to solving the card trick.
 
whopper said:
If you can't figure it out, PM me if you want the solution.

Unless that is, Kugel thinks we should keep people here in suspense?
Click to expand...

My only preference is that we don't ruin it for those who haven't had a chance to try.

I'm always fascinated by the assumptions people make when encountering it. I sometimes use this to expose the biases a student uses to solve a problem that seems impossible.


Seems to me that people typically take one of a few approaches (in no particular order):

1- It's stupid. It's a trick of some sort. Who cares how it's done?

2- The format of the website and the graphics subliminally lead me to pick the card that the program has already decided to remove.

3- It's somehow detecting clues in my behavior (e.g. eye movements via the webcam (even if the computer being used doesn't have one), hesitation of the cursor movement, etc.).

4- It plays the stats, i.e. people often pick one or another card, and the program just plays the odds.

5- It's using some metaphysical connection to me. I'm giving off some sort of "brain waves" that the computer reads.

6- The program is sufficiently complicated that it produces an effect outside of normal perception and reality, so complicated that I can invoke terms like "chaos" or "fractals" or "quantum" without knowing what they mean.

7- Like most "tricks," several of the things going on are probably just distractors. I'll proceed with an algorithm to systematically eliminate the influence of each of the choices and actions involved, so as to reveal the key factor, and then I should be able to see the one simple process involved.
(Such people bore those around them and annoy everyone else by explaining their process in excruciating detail to people who had response #1 in the first place.)

8- "It didn't work. It didn't remove my card."
'Yup. Some regular proportion of responses indicate the "trick" didn't work.
THAT's what's hard to explain.
 
kugel said:
1- It's stupid. It's a trick of some sort. Who cares how it's done?

2- The format of the website and the graphics subliminally lead me to pick the card that the program has already decided to remove.

3- It's somehow detecting clues in my behavior (e.g. eye movements via the webcam (even if the computer being used doesn't have one), hesitation of the cursor movement, etc.).

4- It plays the stats, i.e. people often pick one or another card, and the program just plays the odds.

5- It's using some metaphysical connection to me. I'm giving off some sort of "brain waves" that the computer reads.

6- The program is sufficiently complicated that it produces an effect outside of normal perception and reality, so complicated that I can invoke terms like "chaos" or "fractals" or "quantum" without knowing what they mean.

7- Like most "tricks," several of the things going on are probably just distractors. I'll proceed with an algorithm to systematically eliminate the influence of each of the choices and actions involved, so as to reveal the key factor, and then I should be able to see the one simple process involved.
(Such people bore those around them and annoy everyone else by explaining their process in excruciating detail to people who had response #1 in the first place.)

8- "It didn't work. It didn't remove my card."
'Yup. Some regular proportion of responses indicate the "trick" didn't work.
THAT's what's hard to explain.
Click to expand...

Students give these responses?
 
Very intuitive.

Kinda like one of those WWII tests of character.

This may give you a little insight about me, but I went through a period of my life where I wanted to investigate out-of-the-box methods of thinking between high school and college. I learned a lot of these types of tricks, even started thinking about reading books on performing magic--which is all based on exploiting the common modes of thinking, tricking people because they tend to see the world in a specific way.

It all ended with medical school, where I had no time to read more about it.
 
whopper said:
Very intuitive.

Kinda like one of those WWII tests of character.

This may give you a little insight about me, but I went through a period of my life where I wanted to investigate out-of-the-box methods of thinking between high school and college. I learned a lot of these types of tricks, even started thinking about reading books on performing magic--which is all based on exploiting the common modes of thinking, tricking people because they tend to see the world in a specific way.

It all ended with medical school, where I had no time to read more about it.
Click to expand...

So you entered the training program for what may be the biggest "box" of all, Medicine - in the age of treatment guidelines and Managed Care and preprinted treatment protocols that you just sign.

But you chose the field with the perhaps the least amount of "box" because we probably know the least about exactly which treatments work and which don't, and how to chose one treatment over another for a particular patient.

You've made me need a neurologist....
My Brain Hurts!
 
So you entered the training program for what may be the biggest "box" of all, Medicine - in the age of treatment guidelines and Managed Care and preprinted treatment protocols that you just sign.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

I almost became an artist which goes to show you my brain is not like most of those who enter medical school. I'm a Meyers-Briggs ENTJ--the type of person most likely to hate medschool to the worst degree, and I think it's all because medschool teaches you to think within the box--the most ultimate box of all.

I hated it.

But it was a necessary evil to get me to where I want to be.

I'm taking a law school class right now in fellowship. I've noticed that law school teaches you how to think better, while medschool teaches one to cram incredibly large amounts of data, and expects you to spit it out. The thinking issue is not emphasized so much.
 
You guys are being to harsh on the medical process. Yeah, it sucks. But it also teaches you to pay attention to details. Detective work and sleuthing is a large part of our job. There is also a substantial gray area in medicine where professional opinion comes into play, especially in psychiatry. That is awesome. That's part of the reason why I choose psych is for that gray area. I had no desire to be a check box monkey. I believe thinking is alive and well you just have to push for it, and savor those complex cases when they come in.
 
Detective work and sleuthing is a large part of our job.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I don't see that type of thinking emphasized in multiple choice questions.

The overwhelming majority of the medical education is simply multiple choice. That type of testing only encourages a limited type of thinking. Only recently has the USMLE added the CS section to Step 2 and the computer simulation section to Step III.

While detective and sleuthing are highly important in clinical practice, IMHO, the way medicine is academically taught and tested, it's simply about consuming large amounts of data and spitting it out on a multiple choice test, and for better or worse, the primary thing, by a far and overwhelming majority, that almost everyone considers the most important is the scores on these multiple choice tests. Almost everything else about a candidate is often considered a sloppy second.
 
whopper said:
..the way medicine is academically taught and tested, it's simply about consuming large amounts of data and spitting it out on a multiple choice test, and for better or worse, the primary thing, by a far and overwhelming majority, that almost everyone considers the most important is the scores on these multiple choice tests. Almost everything else about a candidate is often considered a sloppy second.
Click to expand...

Amen to that!
 
whopper said:
Exactly.

I almost became an artist which goes to show you my brain is not like most of those who enter medical school. I'm a Meyers-Briggs ENTJ--the type of person most likely to hate medschool to the worst degree, and I think it's all because medschool teaches you to think within the box--the most ultimate box of all.

I hated it.

But it was a necessary evil to get me to where I want to be.

I'm taking a law school class right now in fellowship. I've noticed that law school teaches you how to think better, while medschool teaches one to cram incredibly large amounts of data, and expects you to spit it out. The thinking issue is not emphasized so much.
Click to expand...

that's funny. I also have a creative side to me and also think it's important to think creatively and I'm surprised you would mention law. How you feel about law is how I feel about med school. I mean all those rules, precedents...they're somewhat arbitrary, just a lot of...stuff...to remember. Philosophy, yes, that'll teach you to think better. Math will do that as well. In fact, presently I'm considering a getting a book or two on philosophy and logic. Too often we apply clinical knowledge to a patient's problems rather mindlessly, ignoring creative solutions that would require us to step back from the situation, clear our head, and do some basic critical thinking. That's why psychodynamic psychotherapy, which I adore, and psychoanalysis in particular, can take you to some surreal places in the clouds which are intellectually pleasing and engaging but further and further from rational and functional solutions to patient's subjective and objective reality.

As for your reference to ENTJ students hating med school the most, I wonder why that would be. Well, perhaps you could have enjoyed your education better as a scientist-in-training. I still can't put it all together, specially with your artistic interests as an ENTJ. 🙂

I initially tested as INFP--which would explain the creative side to my personality though I never considered becoming an (starving) artist. Then a couple of times INTJ. Now the only thing I am sure of is the introversion factor. The others, well, I test nearly right in the middle, which explains the inconsistency, though the test itself is not that reliable either.
 
OldPsychDoc said:
My favorite mind-reading trick: if I'm getting a whiff of OCPD in someone (pre-test probability 😀), I'll ask "Are your spices alphabetized?"
50% hit rate...
Click to expand...
👍 Funny, I use that one 😎
 
whopper said:
Exactly.

I almost became an artist which goes to show you my brain is not like most of those who enter medical school. I'm a Meyers-Briggs ENTJ--the type of person most likely to hate medschool to the worst degree, and I think it's all because medschool teaches you to think within the box--the most ultimate box of all.

I hated it.

But it was a necessary evil to get me to where I want to be.

I'm taking a law school class right now in fellowship. I've noticed that law school teaches you how to think better, while medschool teaches one to cram incredibly large amounts of data, and expects you to spit it out. The thinking issue is not emphasized so much.
Click to expand...

I would think it would be the ENTPs. They are the rebelious types.
Can you tell me where you are getting the data?
 
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