I used to take courses at University with the med students and they, on the whole, did not seem stupid, cranky, or arbitrary. Perhaps some research is in order to pinpoint exactly what happens for some of them to become stupid, cranky, arbitrary and extraordinarily jaded.
Doctors can have it pretty rough in the working-with-people arena. Frankly, people who aren't good with idiots shouldn't go into a field where they have to deal with idiots every day, but plenty of smart people don't think about that before they go into medicine. I don't think physician education systems evaluate doctors for interpersonal skills or do much to teach them the sophisticated interpersonal skills doctors really need to deal with both the idiots they encounter every day
and the people with serious problems who need their help.
Lets face it, there
are whiners, complainers, self-important ignoramuses, and hypochondriacs out there and doctors see a lot of them. I know I would lose patience with that kind of person, but I knew better than to get into a profession where I would be forced to work kindly and supportively with them on a daily basis.
My problem with doctors comes when they don't have the interpersonal skills they need to distinguish between the ignorant and the knowledgeable, the whiners and the genuinely ill, and so on. I really
hate being talked down to by someone with no more intelligence, education, or common sense than I have. I
hate it when they assume right off the bat that I'm a whiner, when in fact I'm more likely to not complain about a lot of symptoms than I am to complain too much. Basically, I
hate their patronizing attitude. I understand that working with the general public as they do would probably make me inclined to assume everyone is an idiot
, but I didn't make the deliberate choice to work with the general public for just that reason. I'm smart, but I'm no fool.
So, while I understand that doctors can have a tough time seeing a lot of annoying people and trying to stay open-minded and helpful, I also think it's part of their profession to do so. Salespeople have the same problem, but if they don't develop good interpersonal skills, they lose their job. Unfortunately, the job market being what it is for doctors, they get to keep on working even when they lack such a basic job skill.
That said, I have met several amazing doctors in the last year -- people who were intelligent, who listened to what I had to say, who really tried to help. They're out there. I know that. I'm starting to profile, though.
So far, the good ones have not been, 1) European/American males, or 2) European or Asian/American females under 50 years old. Maybe that's just me or my local megalopolis group practice, though.