talking to the shrink-free.

this afternoon, between conversations on how to make a seminar and hrishikesh mukherji movies (it's a long ride from gzb to delhi... what can i say), the person i was talking to, started up on how being a psychiatrist makes u a poor conversationalist. what he said, was something that i'm currently a little touchy about, for disparate reasons, and it's not something that i expected, somehow, that someone else would point out. that it's a common affliction of psychiatry students, is something of a relief.

basically, what my co-jr said was that he finds himself boring his non-psychiatrist friends with conversation on topics that only psychiatrists would be interested in. that quirks in people around suddenly become worthy of note, and lead to expositions on whys and wherefores. and how this is something he's noticed that other people, including other doctors, don't do: that their occupations don't involve them or make them as incompetent at normal conversation, as ours does. everything seems relevant, and we tend to ask too many questions. all of which is true, and i guess it's the form of third year syndrome that affects psychiatry residents everywhere. it's not that everything becomes abnormal, merely that everything becomes interesting. which is probably worse. :-).

what bothers me about this, more than anything else, apart from the fact that it makes an unusually boring and self-involved person, is that this sort of thing must be obvious to everyone around (last week, someone asked me if i'm ever off work... :-/). and therefore, i'm starting to wonder if any future expression of concern on my part would be interpreted not as friendship, but clinical acumen. and that, therefore, everything that follows becomes slightly forced and manipulative. which is not the relationship i would like to have with people outside the workplace. but i guess, if wishes were horses.....


ps: the reason i'd decided not to continue with this blog is that i was sick and tired of writing an online journal, with silly trivia about myself. this probably qualifies for all those labels, but i'd like people to hold down this thought when communicating with me. so this post probably belongs where the statutory warning is meant to go... :-/.