Does being a psychiatrist change you?

[BiscoDisco]

Changed me tremendously.

I see myself as more of my job than I am the mere human being I was before the job. In some ways this made me greater. In other ways lesser. Great: I'm a respectable physician, I do good work for the community, it pays well and doing something I believe in. This greater-vs-lesser isn't 50-50. IT's way more pros than cons.
Less: Cause I take the job very seriously I let a lot of other things that would make me feel content fall by the wayside. I have to often times remind myself I'm just a human being and need to do the human stuff.

E.g. If I take time off to enjoy myself I feel bad that I don't treat people. I think of the people I could've helped that I didn't help.
It's not completely bad cause I do enjoy the work, but if it's only work I do sometimes feel my soul suffer.

The job consumes me but at the same time I'm so lucky. Very few people could have a job that so positively impact so many people, pays well, and is so enjoyable (or consuming).

Sometimes in the Batman comics they mention that Bruce Wayne doesn't call himself Bruce in his head, he calls himself Batman cause he thinks he's more that than human. This can be good or bad depending on how you see it. Certainly bad if the person's working too hard.

And here I am feeling bad when I'm off the clock or away from work because I don't feel bad for being away/not learning more/etc.

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[MacDonaldTriad]

What do you say to the medical student who could be described as recalcitrant? The bell curve is wide. Asking for a friend.

I see that I was looking at my reactions and failed to answer your question. I would need to understand more about the nature of being "recalcitrant". You should get that when "asking for a friend" is a very obvious flag that it isn't for someone else, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt.

Psychiatry has a long history of being both welcoming to people outside of two standard deviations (2.5% on each tail), but it is also famous for some people who are amazing pieces of work who shouldn't have been given a medical license. Some of the former have gone on to do amazing work and the later have been complete train wrecks. I would need a lot more information, but psychiatry has been understandably tolerant. There are many examples of when we have been too tolerant. I like that we error on the side of tolerance, but there are costs for this that need to be weighed.