pimping during interview

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At Emory, one interviewer asked me about personality disorders and their treatment, the structure of the DSM, symptoms of PTSD, the difference between dysthymia and major depression, etc. It was done in a friendly way, and I don't mind pimping at all (I always learn better when I'm asked questions and never feel like I'm expected to know *everything*), so I actually enjoyed the interview.

At Yale, one interviewer asked me to talk about an interesting case of my own. Because of his psychodynamic orientation and probably because I mentioned my own interest in psychodynamic psychotherapy, we spent much of that interview discussing that case from that point of view. He asked me to explore resistance and transference and countertransference issues, and even made some interpretations 🙂. Given my own interest, I enjoyed this interview as well. It was like a foretaste of what it will be like to have a psychodynamically oriented supervisor.

I also had several interviews at other places ask me questions like, "Tell me about a crisis you've experienced." Again, this was done respectfully, and I'm not opposed to such questions, so I just answered honestly.
 
Had a few here & there...but the bottom line is to stay calm. Whether or not the program is doing it to test you or because the interviewer is full of him/herself.
If you search on this forum, you'll see a few threads about this same topic.

Similar but not the same as a "pimp" or "stress" interview, some of the interviewers will try to psychoanalyze you as if you're a patient. Unless I'm missing something, I don't think this will produce anything substantial. It just tends to wierd some applicants, and IMHO, psychoanalysis doesn't really get "good" until the psychoanalyst & interviewee do it several times. They'll get all mysterious and start saying things like, "perhaps", or "maybe" and leave some long silences.

But if you had a good experience, good. Maybe that psychoanalyst knew how to incorporate it better in an applicant interview than I've been seeing it from my own experiences.
 
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