I saw in a few program review posts that questions about family/upbringing were considered standard. This seems invasive, inapropriate, and irrelevant to me. So what if your family is Rockwellian or dysfunctional, if growing up was easy or rough. Sure, there is the stereotype that people interested in psychiatry are trying to diagnose themselves or their family, which may be true, but is this appropriate fodder for interview scenarios? Assuming someone has done their own personal work and is well adjusted and can be a good physician/psychiatrist, how is their past relevant for an interview?
What are interviewers getting at with this type of question?
Evading the question likely just makes interviewers more currious, these are psychiatrists after all.
I'm not crippled or ashamed of the fact that my father died of cancer in my 20s, and how complicated this was because I had a strained relationship with him, or that my mother is a hoarder and how negatively that has impacted me, but this is stuff for my personal therapist to hear about, not my residency interviewer.
So the bottom line is: does this line of questioning come up often, and how does one handle this since being dismissive/evasive is so transparent to this type of interviewer and I just don't want to get into my negative family dynamics?
What are interviewers getting at with this type of question?
Evading the question likely just makes interviewers more currious, these are psychiatrists after all.
I'm not crippled or ashamed of the fact that my father died of cancer in my 20s, and how complicated this was because I had a strained relationship with him, or that my mother is a hoarder and how negatively that has impacted me, but this is stuff for my personal therapist to hear about, not my residency interviewer.
So the bottom line is: does this line of questioning come up often, and how does one handle this since being dismissive/evasive is so transparent to this type of interviewer and I just don't want to get into my negative family dynamics?