What Happened

We're polarized on the board? I don't really know what you mean by that.

I think most people here are of the mind that the two groups can work together and "play nicely".

 

<--is willing to share the tire swing and slide in the playground 'o mental health.

-t

 

Hahaha, what about the monkey bars? Are you claiming them as yours .

 

I haven't been on a tire swing since preschool. I want one now!

 

I wasn't a huge fan of the monkey bars, but I was a BIG fan of the animals on the big springs (pre-school, kindergarten age)!

--

What can we do to help bridge the gap?

-t

 

There were people here who were trying to increase the psychology forum, but it was very dead. Now it is very active, but my review of postings show that there is a rather large problem between psychology and psychiatry.

I agree with halflife.

 

Yes. We need to bridge the gap! There's so much to be gained and we are often 2 ships in the night. Welcome Back!

 

RayneeDeigh just pushed me off the tire swing and won't share. I'm telling my Dad.

Rather than join up with those drug pushing SDN psychiatrist wannabees who could not make it as surgeons , I suggest teaming up with the SDN Podiatry Thread (I once dated a first year psychiatrist resident who insisted on telling me that she turned down other types of residencies, such as surgery, so that I would not view her as a loser). After all, if one's feet are comfortable, one must be happy! Happy feet, happy mind!

If we join up with the SDN Proctologist group, I quit. Those anal retentive chumps!

 

Pfft, next you'll be suggesting we team up with the chiropractors.

 

We weren't here 4 years ago (most of us anyway) so we can't tell you what happened! :-D

 

I'm so not an abusive playground kid! I was the one always getting beaten up.

Podiatry always reminds me of one scene from Chicago Hope where they have to do a really complicated heart surgery and the only other doctor on the plane is a podiatrist.

Proctology is underappreciated! I know a guy who only ever does colonoscopies and he makes a million bucks a year. For that much money I'd shove tubes and cameras up peoples butts too.

Hey I've got an acupuncturist that I love!

 

Don't think I could do it. It is like being a dentist.....I don't care how much you pay me, I don't want to look at people's teeth, breath, etc. That being said, I know plenty who would feel the same about what we do.

-t

 

It's interesting that such an important and timely issue in our field is met with such (defensive? regressive?) humor.

Halflife, I agree with your observations and it is disheartenning. Our last MOD, psisci, basically built up the psychology forum from just a few to what it is now and he frequently initiated cross forum dialogs. However, with the wave of a magic wand "psisci" was turned into a "guest" and earnest discussion turned into romper room. He was basically railroaded out!

 

Well first, I wasn't aware that we couldn't have fun while being productive. I'm sorry, I'll work on having less of it.

Second... I have no idea about the politics that goes on behind the scenes here, so why psipsi disappeared I have no idea. I DO know, however, that we try to help people. I myself have given links to people trying to find crime distribution maps when relocating for grad school. I've helped someone remember the term they were forgetting ("approach/avoidance conflict"). We've all given advice about grad school application, course choices, GRE studying, GPA issues, and expressed our various views on prescribing medications in Psychology. Just recently, we patted a Psychiatrist in the news on the back for dealing with the VA tech shootings responsibly.

So in all seriousness (since we already established that joking isn't allowed), we support Psychiatrists. They support us. What more does anybody want? We help people around here. Yeah sure we have fun, but a lot of people get a lot of good advice. If it wasn't for this forum I would STILL be in bed whining about not hearing from grad schools.

 

In my experience, the best way to get a thread back on topic is to post something of value about that topic. You have not done that...

I've always wondered why more psychiatrists don't post on this forum and visa versa, but I haven't been around long enough to really offer any input. I suppose one possibility is that the psychiatry forum is for grad students, while this one is more of a combo undergrad/grad forum?

 

Yes, and that is the point. A few years ago this forum had a few posts a week, and now it has well over 100. People across the US, Canada and Europe read this website and get assistance. The politics, for lack of a better word are pathetic. There were great members like Jonsnow or publichealth who were either banned or pushed into submission by a silly need to protect the egos of those we know better at the expense of those we supposedly are here to help. SDN is cool, and helps alot of student docs of many fields, but the culture has changed from one of American open expression to one of the new American "only say what nobody can disagree with". In the immortal words of Metallica "Sad but True"

fur

 

From what I can tell, psisci only stopped moderating a few weeks ago. The problem has been around a lot longer than that.

We can discuss cross forum dialogues and even forum politics without insulting people.

 

The door swings both ways. People wonder why we don't post on the psychiatry board, yet why don't they post here? I certainly agree that there could be more communication between the two, but as psychiatry is a medical specialty and listed under the medical boards, I suspect that this keeps some of the psychology members from visiting.

That, and oh, I don't know . . . maybe the fact that many of the current psychology members are relatively new to SDN and it takes time to branch out from what one is comfortable/familiar with . . . You still have a number of lurkers on this board who don't post here. Why would they post elsewhere? We can't tell you what's happened over the past several years because once again, most of us are new.

I recommend that people rethink their choice of words before complaining that their is no communication between the two boards, else this will end in alienating everyone altogether. Ergo, no communication whatsoever.

Grow up, indeed.

 

I don't want to pull your thread off topic, but it might be interesting to talk about the best way to keep people on topic and keep the conversation civil, without making the board too totalitarian. That may be a reason psychiatrists don't post here - it just got too ugly.

 

Amy, no offense, but you are way off base. This thread will probably be closed, but I hope not. I have been to huge, national conferences and met up with fellow SDN'rs. This is a great resource for all student docs, and has become a serious force for student psychologists in the past few years. Like America, there is alot wrong with the administration, but I hope you all can keep this site strong as many students depend on it.

 

I feel like I missed something here. Did I? I know PsiSci got removed as mod, I know a bit about what led up to it. To be perfectly honest, I didn't care in the slightest. Perhaps because I'm relatively new here. Perhaps because of my own views on message board etiquette.

I read the psych residency board pretty regularly, though not as often as here. Haven't commented there yet because I haven't had anything to say. Often a lot of medical jargon that goes over my no-bio-since-highschool head

If this board is failing or having troubles I sure missed it Its slowed down a bit now that most people have made their admissions decisions, but that's to be expected. I like it here and have no intentions of leaving anytime soon.

 

I should have added - as I said before - I have no idea why psychiatrists stopped posting. The thread started off about why there is so much animosity between psychiatrists and psychologists on the board. It sounds like the posts between psychiatrists and psychologists could get pretty nasty and maybe that contributed to the animosity?

I think the issue of how much forums should be moderated is a really interesting one, and not just for SDN. As online communication becomes more common, the balance between freedom of expression and keeping conversations on topic and civil is going to become more and more important. I think it might be interesting to talk about how to maintain that balance on SDN.

By the way, I totally agree that SDN is an amazing resource - I'm not sure what I said to make you think otherwise.

 

I'm also relatively new here and I don't know if there was any more cross-pollination between psychiatry and psychology forums a few years ago than there is now. But I think one of the main reasons that psychiatry doesn't post often here is because the majority of our threads, at least in the past few months, were mostly admissions related. There are tons of threads about professional schools, interviews, GREs, grades, decisions, rejections...but looking on the first page of threads, there are only a few like our intrinsic worth, attachment theory, and school shootings that aren't admissions related. Since the psychiatry students have a very different application process from ours, I imagine this is one reason that they are not very interested in our forum.

I think this wealth of admissions-related information is how this forum has blossomed in the past year or two. I know I came across this site while searching for something about the psychology grad school process, and it's quite likely that's how others found the site too. Also, from what I've found, there aren't any other sites with as much information about psych applications as on SDN, which helps hold on to the psych applicants who have come across this site.

However, now that April 15 has passed, my guess is that more of the threads will be about psychological issues in our community. Additionally, this forum gained so many new users this application season, and I'm guessing that a good number of people will remain to help the site flourish into much more beyond admissions. Once this begins to happen, I believe that psychiatry students will find our threads more interesting and post here more often.

 

Point a) Meh. Don't know enough about psisci to really state an opinion--so I'm with ollie on not really caring.

Point b) Problem being that most of us who post here are not psychologists yet. It appears that the majority of the members currently posting are students attempting to enter grad school in order to gain that coveted title. In which case, they likely aren't going to be familiar with the terminology in order to post cross forums. And, at the same time, the ones on "the other side" aren't going to be interested in posting here regarding our discussions on the admissions process.

 

I'm hoping some "old-timers" can comment more on the conflict between psychiatrists and psychologists bc I seriously don't know how it used to be. Was there a time when everyone got along?

You started the thread by saying they seemed "polarized" and, from what I've seen recently, it does seem to be a bit of a problem. Psychiatrists don't post often and, when they do, it usually gets a bit heated (although, it's often about RxP rights for psychologists, which is just a touchy issue - maybe we should start a thread about puppies and invite psychiatrists to join:
Psychologist: I love puppies.
Psychiatrist: I love puppies too!
Psychologist and Psychiatrist: ).

On that note, I would also hate to see the level of dialogue decrease because people are afraid of offending one another.

Two very simple rules that I've seen on other forums that work well:
Stay on topic. I, personally, would love it if the MOD would remind people of this more often (and I like how T4C is starting to do more of it). I think far too many threads on this forum start off strong, but then get off topic and die within a page. You don't see that happen everywhere.

Avoid personal insults This really isn't much of an issue here, but it happens every once in awhile. You can insult programs and professions all you want, but don't insult people on the boards. It's not polite! On the other hand, it's important to differentiate between a difference in opinion and a personal attack. The MOD can usually help with this.

SO - to recap - the balance between dictatorship and chaos on any forum is hard to maintain and I certainly don't claim to have a lot of answers. Also, I love SDN! And I think it has far fewer problems than most forums. It's a wonderful supportive place that encourages lots of different points of view.

 

Don't really want to get into it too much, since, as I said I never got to know him well enough to feel comfortable saying whether or not he was a good mod.

I felt some of his posts were needlessly rude and/or misleading. Not all by any means, but the first posts I read by him were and it gave me a bad initial impression. That being said, I also read some very kind and helpful posts by him later on, so that's why I don't feel I know enough to comment, as I didn't have enough time to see which was the norm. We've all said things we aren't proud of at some point, so I'm not comfortable judging the person as a whole by a few posts that may have been made on a bad day.

Please note that I'm only posting the above because it was specifically asked for. I harbor no ill will towards anyone here and am not trying to start a war.

I'm becoming comfortable with the terminology by doing my own readings, so I'm getting there Give me time and I'm sure I'll be right there with you.

 

... because in any normal population there are natural variations in personal opinion.


Anyway, what I really wanted to say is that just because we don't cross-post that much doesn't mean there's any bad blood between the groups. We just went through a very stressful time of year and we're BUSY PEOPLE. I've had so much to say and do on here that I haven't even thought about exploring the other forums.

Maybe if we spent less time worrying about who's posting what and more contributing to the collaboration in applied settings, there would be less to complain about and more to be proud of.

 

I'm so confused.

Your first post made it sound like you disliked what was happening on this board, and now we're all friends?

I'm too sleepy for this. lol

 

Consider it prep for your defense tomorrow--Now go to sleep & dream of puppies!

 

Oh. Hmm, well okay then. I can certainly relate since in the span of 24 hours I had two nervous breakdowns and used a whole box of Kleenex today.

Can't sleep! I have mucho important things to do like rehearse 20 billion more times and practice my makeup for tomorrow. haha.

I will pay a Psychiatrist to do my presentation for me. See, I love Psychiatrists.

Actually, I do have a story to add to the topic at hand and I just remembered it. In junior high since I went through the normal teenage angst crap, my mom took me to see the Psychiatrist that she'd had since her parents died six months apart. When said psychiatrist found out that I wanted to possibly go into Psychology she told me to come back in a week. When I went back, she had ten MCAT books for me and told me that I'd be making a big mistake if I chose Psychology instead of Psychiatry.

Aside from that though (and one Psychologist at my university who is notorious for hating medicine), I haven't really heard much fighting between the fields. Maybe I'm just naive.

 

Hmm, the only anecdotal information I can add regarding psychiatrists & psychologists bickering actually cancels one another out:

(1) My physics TA was previously in medical school, pursuing his interest in psychiatry. He was quite adamant that I not do the same and should pursue psychology instead.

(2) One of the psychology professors at my current program advises everyone not to pursue psychology but to go into psychiatry instead.

What's really sad is I've seen students follow their recommendations without checking them out any further. Well, this guy told me I shouldn't do this, so I'm going to do this other instead simply because someone else told me to do it. :|

Oddly enough (or perhaps not), everyone seems to think the grass is greener on the other side.