ANY INTJ IN PSYCHIATRY?

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as an INTJ, do you regret choosing Psychiatry as a medical specialty?


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idoctor1986

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I'm a little bit confused trying to choose a medical specialty and I'm seriously considering Psychiatry.

I want to know if there are currently any attending or resident INTJs out there in Psychiatry. If so, please let me know:


1. Do you like it or do you wish you did something else. any regrets choosing Psychiatry?
2. What aspect about it do you like, and dislike?
3. Would you recommend Psychiatry to INTJs?

thanks.

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Yes, I always score strongly INTJ and I'm in psychiatry and love it. But, the whole Myers-Briggs thing supposedly isn't so valid. It really doesn't make a difference in this situation, at the least.
 
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INTJ is probably one of the most common personality types in medicine in general, so I'd imagine you're in good company regardless what you choose.

ENTP here so can't otherwise help.
 
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There was a Myers-Briggs poll in this forum a while back, and the majority of psychiatrists who responded were INTJ, with the second most common being INFJ (woohoo!).
 
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I am most suited in physical medicine and rehab.

ENFJ here.


Psychiatry Applicant 2016.
 
INTJ is probably one of the most common personality types in medicine in general, so I'd imagine you're in good company regardless what you choose.


This is true. Poll a med school class, going to be at least >50% INTJ.

There was a Myers-Briggs poll in this forum a while back, and the majority of psychiatrists who responded were INTJ, with the second most common being INFJ (woohoo!).

This is more interesting. INFJ is the rarest of the 16 combos, and still not common in med school. Interesting that it is second for psychiatry. I suspect empathy/reflection is playing a role here.
 
Hmm INFP here. When I was first exposed to this I would test INFJ or INTJ. Over time I've moved solidly to F and waffled on P/J.
 
Also, please note that the MBTI has pretty shoddy psychometrics, both in terms of validity and reliability. I personally don't place much more stock in it than I do horoscopes. Thus, I wouldn't worry too much about whether or not your results line up with anticipated career goals.
 
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Also, please note that the MBTI has pretty shoddy psychometrics, both in terms of validity and reliability. I personally don't place much more stock in it than I do horoscopes. Thus, I wouldn't worry too much about whether or not your results line up with anticipated career goals.
Thanks.......I was about to withdraw from my MATCH. lol
 
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Yeah, the MBTI is kinda junk. Personally, I've found more insight from the enneagram, but that's quasi spiritual and I would never use it professionally.

But for the record, I'm an INFP. And the SDN quiz puts me in Endocrine.

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Man look at all the I's in here! Am I the odd one out being an ENFP in psychiatry? :p
 
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Where are my fellow intps? I can't imagine anyone who thinks/acts like I do picking most other specialties.
 
There was a Myers-Briggs poll in this forum a while back, and the majority of psychiatrists who responded were INTJ, with the second most common being INFJ (woohoo!).
Reminds me of a book I was reading recently, which made the point that psychiatry can be appealing to introverts because it's a structured way of working with people.
Yeah, the MBTI is kinda junk. Personally, I've found more insight from the enneagram, but that's quasi spiritual and I would never use it professionally.

But for the record, I'm an INFP. And the SDN quiz puts me in Endocrine.

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SDN put me as Endocrine, too. Looks like, summarized, it's for valuing variety, complex decision making, uncertain problems, and working with people.

Also, please note that the MBTI has pretty shoddy psychometrics, both in terms of validity and reliability

Not surprised, sometimes I think my type might reflect who I want to be as much as it reflects who I am.
 
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I'm wondering if flexibility in thinking roles may be more important than innate style. Obviously (or perhaps hopefully) we are all capable of empathy. And we are all capable of logic. We can all do something because it seemed right or by following a specific algorithm. We can all see some bigger picture or some finer details.

Extroverts are just bad people, though...
 
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I am most suited in physical medicine and rehab.

ENFJ here.


Psychiatry Applicant 2016.


Glad to see i'm not the only one!


Dear Introverted soon to be interns, I'm sorry in advance for how perky and slightly intrusive I'm going to be once orientation week rolls around. I just like meeting new people and hope that our intern group gets along :)
 
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Where are my fellow intps? I can't imagine anyone who thinks/acts like I do picking most other specialties.

INTP here. FWIW I can't see myself doing any other specialty.
 
I was completely disregarding the neuropsychologists report (like Wis and AA up above) that this test was a sham, after all, what do they know about psychometric properties of psychological tests? Now that the Huffington Post says it, then I know it's no good.
:smack:

:) Just having a little fun on a Friday before my weekend on call. :(
 
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Like they said in the video on that huffpo article, myers briggs is fun because it's positive. Who wants to take the MMPI-2 to find out about their "hypochondriasis (Hs), depression (D), hysteria (Hy), psychopathic deviate (Pd), masculinity/femininity (Mf), paranoia (Pa), psychathenia (Pt), schizophrenia (Sc), hypomania (Ma), and social introversion (Si)" and the validity score for their test.
 
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I briefly mentioned in my personal statement that I think the MBTI is fun, and I had several attendings ask me on interviews what my type is. When I would tell them that I'm an INTJ, literally every time they would say "Me too!" Apparently we are very common in psychiatry.
 
I just took one for the heck of it, and got INFP. Which I'm pretty sure is at least 50% different from the last time I took one ~10 yrs ago--pretty sure I was E and J on that one...
 
it surprises me that many of the psychiatrists are INTJ.
 
it surprises me that many of the psychiatrists are INTJ.
MBTI would have you think that one can either be a "thinker" or a "feeler" but that's obviously not true, as psychiatrists tend to be pretty good at both.

I'm trying to remember the way these things are phrased in the psychology literature--they're may actually be orthogonal traits.
 
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I speak for myself, I love analysing people but I don't like spending much time speaking with people especially with low IQ. I feel that I lack empathy also. That's why it surprises me to have so many INTJ psychiatrists.
 
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You said you were "seriously considering" psychiatry, but you also say that you don't like spending much time speaking with people and that you lack empathy... I'm not trying to criticize you, but I'm genuinely curious why you have a strong interest in psychiatry. You don't need to justify yourself to me, I just think that reflecting on that might help you more than thinking in terms of the MBTI.
 
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MBTI would have you think that one can either be a "thinker" or a "feeler" but that's obviously not true, as psychiatrists tend to be pretty good at both.
Some (many?) people are close to 50/50 on some traits (you can see the numbers in quantitive score reports) and their results may vary between different testing attempts. Eg., I usually get INTJ with I and J being solid (close to 100) and N and T not so strong (closer to 50), so sometimes I get S instead of N or F instead of T (come to think of it, I've been testing mostly INFJ lately - I must be getting touchy-feely with age :)). Bottom line, it kind of makes better sense to look at quantitive trait scores rather than the 16 four letter types.
 
You said you were "seriously considering" psychiatry, but you also say that you don't like spending much time speaking with people and that you lack empathy... I'm not trying to criticize you, but I'm genuinely curious why you have a strong interest in psychiatry. You don't need to justify yourself to me, I just think that reflecting on that might help you more than thinking in terms of the MBTI.

It seems contradictory but I like analysing people, the human brain and the human psychology interest me and I feel very comfortable dealing with ideas.
It annoys me spending the whole day speaking with people but for short bursts I can handle it.
If it's up to me I would rather travel back in Time and not choosing Medicine but Philosophy.
I think that if I pick Psychiatry I can be closer to Philosophy.
 
It seems contradictory but I like analysing people, the human brain and the human psychology interest me and I feel very comfortable dealing with ideas.
It annoys me spending the whole day speaking with people but for short bursts I can handle it.
If it's up to me I would rather travel back in Time and not choosing Medicine but Philosophy.
I think that if I pick Psychiatry I can be closer to Philosophy.

That is really not the case.

If it annoys you talking to people all day and you lack empathy/compassion for people, please do something else. You will hate psychiatry. Doing a disservice to patients aside, you'll be miserable.

Why not do path and read philosophy in your spare time?



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MBTI would have you think that one can either be a "thinker" or a "feeler" but that's obviously not true, as psychiatrists tend to be pretty good at both.

I'm trying to remember the way these things are phrased in the psychology literature--they're may actually be orthogonal traits.

The MBTI isn't particularly well-grounded in psychological theory/literature, probably in part because neither of the two folks who developed it were psychologists; they simply loosely based it on Jung's work, which itself hasn't always been very well-supported empirically.

Some of the concepts align in part with the big 5, but not all, and not solidly. And even the big 5 has its deficiencies, but it's at least more thoroughly studied and supported than the MBTI, which might have worse psychometrics than some magazine relationship quizzes.
 
ENTJ here.. Full of energy, I run a few successful businesses, always on the move and I love psychiatry and talking to people. I am a little afraid of the "dark triad" tendencies that I may share... I feel moral deep down with my actions but I know in the business world I can be a culprit of only seeking out relationships for my personal gain and long term interest. Hope I do alright in this field bc truthfully I hate everything else in medicine.
 
I speak for myself, I love analysing people but I don't like spending much time speaking with people especially with low IQ. I feel that I lack empathy also. That's why it surprises me to have so many INTJ psychiatrists.
A lot of our patients do have a low IQ and that can be part of their difficulty. Low IQ plus lack of social/family support is a pretty good recipe for depression and anxiety. If you add in trauma, then that person really needs help. This is a helping profession, if helping people is not something that you derive some enjoyment from, then you won't be very happy doing this job. I enjoy analyzing why people do what they do, but I also enjoy helping them. If didn't enjoy it, then I would quickly burn out on the non-YAVIS patients that we work with.
 
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@FlowRate - ENTP also. And we're both in the same cycle. And had some similar interviews I think. Wonder if we've run into each other!
 
ENFP here, according to one website I have a little spark of madness and I enjoy dancing. Egads! It's like they know me so well. :eek:
 
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INFP here. Intrigued to find out about all you "T's". The predominance of I & N are about what I'd have expected.
 
MBTI would have you think that one can either be a "thinker" or a "feeler" but that's obviously not true, as psychiatrists tend to be pretty good at both.

I'd say it's the same with introvert/extrovert. You can be both, and you can be both at the same time in my experience.
 
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