What do you think of people like this?

[purplesoccer34]

I once had a friend who said something along the lines of, "At least person A has the right to be arrogant if he wants to, because he's a doctor. Person B is only a nurse, so what right does he have to be arrogant?" He'd also tell me, "I see absolutely no ambition in you because all you want to become a physical therapist. Your friend has no ambition either, because she wants to be a physician's assistant. Now if you guys were becoming doctors, I'd say you have ambition." He also said, "When I was in college, I knew I had other interests but I chose med school for the prestige. I had to have people respect me the way a doctor is respected. Anything less, and I wouldn't be happy." Sometimes when I ask him for a source when he states certain facts, he says, "Look you'll never accept anything unless you have solid proof, and you can't be that way all the time. I'm a doctor so I know what I'm talking about." This last one is the worst of them all: "Deep inside, everybody wants to become a doctor because of the prestige. It's like working in Hollywood--everybody wants it. The ones who choose other careers are the ones who know they can't handle med school. If someone gets into medical school, they absolutely will not choose anything else."

 

Now, I really don't know if he means everything he says but all these things made me pretty mad. Especially since I've known very intelligent people who've chosen to do other things in life. I know some great doctors, but this particular guy just seems weird. I respect every profession in the world equally--I don't think any person is above or below another. I completely lost it when he said these things.

 

He'd also say things like, "I can get any woman I want. Women secretly give me signs all the time. Many women tell me that I'm the best-looking guy they've ever met, so I can afford to be as picky as I want to be." He hasn't had a girlfriend in over 10 years.

 

Could it be that he has really low self-esteem and is just heavily disturbed? He finished 4 years of med school (outside the US, because he couldn't get into a US med school) years ago, and still has not been able to get into residency. Thus, he's not actually a doctor yet. Could he be saying all this out of frustration? I once straight up told him that he's the most negative person I know, and that my friends are all so positive and he said, "Look, I'm always honest with you. Your friends aren't, so their positivity is harming you more than anything." Lol when did positivity ever harm anyone?

 

I'm just wondering if this is normal behavior.

Edited August 21, 2014 by purplesoccer34

[todreaminblue]

I would think doctors became doctors to help people, because they enjoy helping people, because they have the capacity to help people and because they love helping people, that they also have the intellectual capacity adn mental and physical fotittude to maek often life saving decsions on anothers behalf.... to save lives and to do the best job that they can do.......i feel the best doctors always have their patients best interests at heart...that they deliver treatment and consultations with patients to the very best of their ability.....i also believe that doctors are human and make mistakes like everyone else.....doctors have bad days too.......i believe in good doctors..i also know there are really cold doctors and i dont think or feel their patients well being is close to their heart....doctors dont know everything and the best doctors are those that admit that and seek to learn what they arent aware of.....

 

 

 

i know doctors work long hours are often taken for granted and are necessary to save lives....in that...they should not feel superior that they hold a persons life in their hands but with compassion and understanding they seek to hold up the hippocratic oath they took when they became doctors......an oath is an oath....deb......

[Candy_Pants]

He's got a god complex and is terribly boring. All his self importance makes me gag.

[SpiralOut]

He is trying to make himself feel better. He's not happy but he can't admit it, so he tries to believe that everybody else's life sucks more than his.

Edited August 21, 2014 by SpiralOut

[bathtub-row]

This is the kind of narrow-minded medical professional that I would avoid like a plague.

 

I once had a dr tell me that certain symptoms I was having were due to me being pregnant. I told him that was highly unlikely. As it turned out, I had ulcers. When ulcers get bad enough, you'll do things like throw up in the morning. So, ulcers kind of mimic pregnancy but not really. Anyway, this lame brain insisted that I was pregnant and offered to give me a prescription to stop the nausea. So, I asked him, if I actually was pregnant, would the medication harm the child. He said yes.

 

Your friend is like this dr. He is small-minded and full of himself. So, I suppose Robert Oppenheimer chose quantum physics because he just didn't have the brains for medical school. The same for Einstein.

 

Right.

 

The truth is, I personally wouldn't want to be a dr for anything. They're continually on call and nearly all of them have chaotic lives. If I were that smart (and I'm sure I'm not), then I'd choose science or law over medicine any day.

 

Do people admire doctors? A lot of them, yes. The arrogant ones, no. Your friend is very limited in his thinking and he's actually a danger to the people he's supposed to be helping. There's no point in talking to people like this. They are a complete and utter waste of your precious time.

[preraph]

He sounds like a jerk. The truth is arrogance is something you either have or you don't, and it doesn't really depend on how successful you are. Yes, a lot of doctors are arrogant, but not all of them. Chances are their arrogance led them to want to be super-successful and have a title and once they got one, they got even more arrogant.

 

I never thought arrogance was particularly a bad thing because I don't view being self-assured as a bad thing. But when anyone abuses their position, that goes beyond arrogance -- and I think that is what a lot of people view as arrogance.

[Sugarkane]

If this guy is so fantastic why doesnt he have his residency yet?! He sounds like a real pig. No wonder why he hasn't had a gf in ten years! You know why I changed family doctors 2 years ago? Because my old GP has a really bad bedside manner. One with a good bedside manner is priceless.

[SunnyWeather]

doc's really aren't all that anymore- they just do the patient shuffle and beg to the insurance gods.

 

i guess it would depend on where you live. bottom line, your friend is pretty shallow and boring.

[Ronni_W]

I'm just wondering if this is normal behavior.

Well...it's "normal" for people who think like that.

Most likely he was/is just spouting conditioned programming that he got from his parents and, or grandparents...and hadn't/hasn't yet bothered to question the validity of such narrow-minded silliness. He likely meant what he said at that time but possibly only because he hadn't thought it out for himself yet.

 

As you say, there is also no logic in any belief along the lines of genuine positivity being harmful (not that ignoring facts and reality is beneficial, though). He just was/is not yet getting how limiting, even destructive -- to self and others -- his personal (unexamined?) belief system/philosophy actually was/is.

Edited August 22, 2014 by Ronni_W