GOD complex

[DocHeart]

Do most doctors develop it?

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[zmeister22]

I have been working in the medical field for five years now, and I can tell you at first, many doctors seem like pricks. Although it is true that many physicians forget that their name is followed by M.D. and not G.O.D., the more you are exposed to medicine, the more realistic your perceptions become. After I began working with doctors, I changed my major at the university to pre-nursing because I thought that would be the only way to really take care of people and keep personable and grounded. After continued exposure, I realized that the doctors that are good are REALLY good and I went back on the pre-med track and haven't looked back since.

The doctors that often come off with this attitude, at least in my experience, are cardiothoracic surgeons, trauma surgeons and interventional cardiologists. These guys also by far have one of the highest stress environments when it comes to critical patients. Literally every second counts and minor discrepancies can lead to the permanent injury/death of the patient for which they will be held responsible. Therefore, these guys tend to be the pickiest, crankiest and most demanding, but for good reason.

 

[DocBR]

I have been working in the medical field for five years now, and I can tell you at first, many doctors seem like pricks. Although it is true that many physicians forget that their name is followed by M.D. and not G.O.D., the more you are exposed to medicine, the more realistic your perceptions become. After I began working with doctors, I changed my major at the university to pre-nursing because I thought that would be the only way to really take care of people and keep personable and grounded. After continued exposure, I realized that the doctors that are good are REALLY good and I went back on the pre-med track and haven't looked back since.

The doctors that often come off with this attitude, at least in my experience, are cardiothoracic surgeons, trauma surgeons and interventional cardiologists. These guys also by far have one of the highest stress environments when it comes to critical patients. Literally every second counts and minor discrepancies can lead to the permanent injury/death of the patient for which they will be held responsible. Therefore, these guys tend to be the pickiest, crankiest and most demanding, but for good reason.

I agree that they do not all get the "GOD Syndrome" but I think the propensity to develop it is there for a lot of physicians (especially surgeons). One of my friends from middle school works in a high end salon right by Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Az. She says that she hates the doctor clients because they are all so self important. She says they cannot understand why she will not cancel a lowly lay-person's appointment to ensure that the medical hair is properly dressed.

And honestly, I can see how one might develop that complex. If you are preforming life saving surgery every single day, eventually you will probably feel entitled to that seductive "on call physician only parking" or the ability to talk your way out of a ticket because you are speeding to save a life. Our society views physicians at a near holy status, eventually I imagine the physician does too. Throw in the fact that many doctors are already the uber competitive, type A personality and you have the perfect recipe for megalomania.

Lucky for me, I have a fiancé who will knock me down a peg when I get too cool for myself.

 

[Husky85]

The phrase you're looking for is "God Complex" ...it's not "God Syndrome". God syndrome implies that its contagious or debilitating or something along those lines.

Imagine if there were an epidemic of God Syndrome ripping through the hospital. Quick, call the CDC!!!

(OP, I'm just kidding around )

But seriously, from personal experience I think that a handful of doctors are arrogant jerks...and they tend to be concentrated in certain specialties or at certain institutions. The handful arrogant jerk doctors like to be with other arrogant jerk doctors. So basically, if you don't want to be surrounded by them just be selective in your med school and residency application process and eliminate those places as possibilities. Over time as people avoid these institutions, their programs will cease to be successful (see Panda Bear MD's account of the Duke Family Medicine program).

 

[Law2Doc]

But seriously, from personal experience I think that a handful of doctors are arrogant jerks...and they tend to be concentrated in certain specialties or at certain institutions. The handful arrogant jerk doctors like to be with other arrogant jerk doctors. So basically, if you don't want to be surrounded by them just be selective in your med school and residency application process and eliminate those places as possibilities.

Although if you did go to one of those places for med school or residency you would certainly not develop a God complex -- more likely the opposite -- because you would likely go through 4 years of being called an idiot.

 

[DocHeart]

sorry, "god complex" not syndrom

 

[Husky85]

Although if you did go to one of those places for med school or residency you would certainly not develop a God complex -- more likely the opposite -- because you would likely go through 4 years of being called an idiot.

I suppose you're right. But who wants that anyway?

 

[AmoryBlaine]

God complexes are pretty limited to a few high-powered fields. CV surg is notorious although the ones at my institution are pure gold.

You can sort of see why general pediatricians tend not to develope god complexes. Its hard to feel drunk with power when you are doing a developemental screening questionairre.

 

[TheRealMD]

Because fear is probably the most powerful way to get things done quickly. Do we wish there could be some other way? Certainly. But everything happens for a reason and sadly, how you feel about a physician has little impact compared to saving a patient's life.

 

[Hurricane95]

No.

 

[HumidBeing]

Funny, most of the ones that I know are completely the opposite. There's so much that still isn't known, so much that can't be 'fixed', so much that is out of their hands, that they know they can't come close to diety status. They just do the best they can with the knowledge and tools that they have available. Sometimes they may wish they were a god so that patients would actually follow their advice.

 

[sle3pyguii]

When I saw the title, Dr. Cox from Scrubs came to mind.

 

[etf]

well radiologists and dermatologists may end up feeling like god after step 1, but i guess it pretty much ends there...

 

[masterMood]

well radiologists and dermatologists may end up feeling like god after step 1, but i guess it pretty much ends there...

though they may no longer feel like they have "God"-status, at least they'll enjoy a comfy lifestyle

 

[jochi1543]

You can sort of see why general pediatricians tend not to develope god complexes. Its hard to feel drunk with power when you are doing a developemental screening questionairre.

I'm drunk with power as a premed.

 

[StevenJ128]

Many surgeons, at least while in the operating room, will get a complex to an extent. Actually, almost all of the CV and Neuro surgeons I know (and I know them well, Dad's a CV) have actually been the most laid back. Don't get me wrong, I'll be the first to say that my Dad can be an ass hole, but he is not just plain mean like some can be. In my experience (just in the OR), the lower-stress Plastics and some Gen. Surgery guys were the ones making nurses cry on a daily basis. I think it just depends on the person, and how bitter they are about their job.

 

[kronickm]

Money, power and respect are three things most people get when they become doctors. These things will not give you a god complex. What they will do is exacerbate your "God complex" qualities that had lied dormant.

Take athletes for example. Pacman Jones or Terrell Owens for example were most likely very full of themselves their entire lives, now that they make millions of dollars they think they are gods among men. Take Cal Ripken Jr., he was probably a nice humble person his whole life, all his money and fame didn't change that.

The same goes for doctors. Basically what you are before you are a doctor will likely become exacerbated after you are a doctor. It just so happens that there are a lot of gunners who go into medicine and really do think their $hit don't stink.

 

[ChiDoc27]

This quote fits perfectly...
"The question is, 'Do I have a God complex?' Which makes me wonder if this... lawyer... has any idea as to the kind of grades one has to receive in college to be accepted at a top medical school. If you have the vaguest clue as to how talented someone has to be to lead a surgical team. I have an M.D. from Harvard. I am board certified in cardio-thoracic medicine and trauma surgery. I have been awarded citations from seven different medical boards in New England, and I am never, ever, sick at sea. So I ask you: When someone goes in to that chapel and they fall on their knees and they pray to God that their wife doesn't miscarry, or that their daughter doesn't bleed to death, or that their mother doesn't suffer acute neural trauma from post-operative shock, who do you think they're praying to? Now, you go ahead and read your Bible... Dennis, and you go to your church, and with any luck you might win the annual raffle, but if you're looking for God, He was in operating room number two on November seventeenth, and He doesn't like to be second guessed. You ask me if I have a God complex? Let me tell you something. I am God." - Alec Baldwin as Dr. Jed Hill, from the movie Malice

 

[VoiceofReason]

I thought of Alec Baldwin too, as I do whenever I hear someone mention the God complex.

Great quote, really chilling because you know that your opinion should be that the man is delusional, but in your gut you find yourself agreeing with a lot of his sentiment.


Not that I think I or many others will develop this problem, I just thoroughly enjoy a good script, good writing, and good actors.

 

[njbmd]

Do most doctors develop it?

Actually, quite the opposite. If you are smart, you realize very quickly how much you "don't" know and "can't" accomplish.

 

[TheRealMD]

It took me about an hour of shadowing an ortho clinic in a hospital to realize that medicine often doesn't "fix things" but only "make them better". Funny how some people never reach that conclusion.

 

[Vitum Medicinus]

Great quote from http://surgeonsblog.blogspot.com on this topic:

there seems to be a very schizophrenic attitude about physicians. People want more knowledgeable doctors, ones that will listen better and explain more clearly. Docs that will fully enumerate and carefully explain all the issues and choices for any situation; who will be sensitive to their individual needs, who will both guide them but let them make all their own decisions. And, of course, doctors with comprehensively flawless knowledge and impeccably perfect skills. People criticize doctors -- surgeons especially -- for having a god-complex, but they want god-like perfection. To achieve it, they suggest flooding the market with doctors and spending less time training them. And, of course, after people flock to become these perfect doctors, to pay them less and less for their efforts. Highly qualified, well-motivated folks with altruism aplenty will fight their way to the front of the line.

 

[SketchLazy]

Do most doctors develop it?

I think doctors are just confident and some do border on being cocky, but the ones that really seem to have the GOD complex are the freshman pre-meds from 'top-tier' schools.

'I graduated with a 4.3 and got a 2380 on my SAT. After I knock this college thing out of the park, I'm gonna go to HMS and then save DABs with nothing but a ball point pen, napkins, and some Crisco. So what are you going to do?...Oh, you're going to be a pharmacist? How cute...'

...Bastards.