What should I do? career path

[kaserm]

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I am an IMG( South-Eastern Europe, step 1 261/99, YOG 2015)...During the course of my medical studies, I also obtained a degree in psychology. Now, I do not know if I should take step 2 and try to match into psychiatry residency( with all the obstacles facing an IMG without connections), or I should embark on psychology career path and pursue a PhD.
Reading books of Freud, Adler, Erikson, Jung, Beck... and my parallel interest in philosophy and sociology, is what aroused my interest in psychiatry/ psychology when I was a teen, and I do not like materialist direction of modern psychiatry, I find its new face unrecognizable and sometimes ethically problematic. Having said that, I do not really have an interest in psycho-pharmacology( although I do recognize that in some cases medications are necessary but I view them as last resort). I am interested in academic career, but it appears to me that all the major fronts in psychiatric research are in the field of psycho-pharmacology. Of course, there are some residency programs which offer training in psychotherapy( such as Pennsylvania, are they IMG friendly?), but these are in minority. I am not interested in lucrative aspects.

On the other hand, choosing psychology would mean that my 6-years of medical studies will go down the drain. Also, as a psychologist, I would not want " shared jurisdiction" over a patient with a psychiatrist.

 

[A Deep Breath]

I doubt that you're going to enjoy any psychiatry residency without an interest in psychopharmacology. On top of that, you seem to view modern psychiatry with contempt. Your interests lie in psychotherapy and academics, so psychology seems like a much better fit. Sure, you spent 6 years in medical school, but psychiatry residency would be another 4 years that you might find miserable.

From what you've said, "shared jurisdiction" shouldn't be much of a concern. You would be part of a team where you provide the psychotherapy that you are passionate about while a psychiatrist handles medication issues that you are not interested in.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

Small counter argument here;

Psychiatrists do operate in a team model, but they are the most expensive and rarest commodity in the team. They are also held the most responsible for outcomes and liability. Management tends to try and keep them content and gives them a lot of room to maneuver. Good psychiatrists take multiple inputs from multiple disciplines, but when something seems important to a psychiatrist, the orders in the medical record are not treated as a suggestion list. All head to head standoffs are won by the psychiatrist 99% of the time. If someone tries to protest up the chain, the un-satiating explanation is “because that is the way it is”.

You can be a psychologist with psychiatric credentials. Four years isn’t that much to pay for what you get now that you are this far.

 

[kaserm]

Thanks a lot, both of you!

I was hoping for a compromise, and thought that I could perhaps live happily in polygamy, but then I began to realize that I would, perhaps, at some point of my life have to turn monogamous and ditch one of them...

It is true that some people prefer to see a psychologist because of a stigma attached to seeing a psychiatrist, but then again, even more people think of medications as some kind of panacea and an easy way out. My uncle had a woman( mourning the recent loss of her husband) walk into his office and ask to be prescribed antidepressants...

My main research interest is autism.