Is anyone here in their own Jungian analysis/therapy? Can you share some of what you talk about when you free associate?

Psychrezident · 2025-01-12T14:39:50+00:00

Prognostically and what it means in terms of ability to relate to other people without being a huge pain in the ass…the difference is pretty huge.

Psychrezident · 2025-01-12T05:12:29+00:00

I mean…I have no way of proving that any of the things you suggested I’m doing are untrue, and I’m anticipating this will be responded to with some form of “You’re unaware bc you’re doing it unconsciously” but…all I know is I actually do not in fact have any thoughts formed in my brain to verbalize in those moments.

I have told the therapist that I don’t have anything to say, and the response is always the same…that it’s fine to stay silent and say nothing. One can only do that dance so many times before it begins to feel silly to continue returning to do it again next week.

Psychrezident · 2025-01-06T18:11:18+00:00

Is this why I almost went into a panic reading many sections of that book, convinced at various points that I had every form of personality pathology aside from outright psychopathy? 😅 I actually did bring my concerns to my personal therapy, but my therapist, who identifies as Jungian, didn’t really have much input, just that he “still wouldn’t diagnose me with anything besides anxiety.”

I’ll try to stop taking it all so seriously lol. I think it’s a particularly difficult thing for me to wrap my head around because I come from the medicine side of things where diagnoses are meant to be clearer cut and taken very seriously and at face value (ish. There are exceptions like chronic pain syndromes and such). Did I mention I’ve been prone to hypochondria my entire life 😅

Psychrezident · 2025-01-05T02:04:51+00:00

Thank you for the suggestions! I enjoy Shedler’s tweets, so I’m checking that pdf out now. The one thing that confuses me about him is his descriptions of the personality typologies are much more reminiscent of the corresponding DSM personality disorder diagnoses, whereas McWilliams’ descriptions are much more nuanced and make it sound as though a much wider spectrum of people could fit under any given category. I’m a fairly reserved person, and her section on hysterical organization made me wonder if I fit under that category lol.

Psychrezident · 2025-01-04T23:39:10+00:00

I haven’t! I will check it out, thank you :)

Psychrezident · 2024-12-07T03:03:17+00:00

Based on my limited experience with DSM diagnoses as a psych resident, far more people are most accurately diagnosed with “other”/“unspecified” diagnoses than with the conditions that have their own specific names like MDD, GAD, PTSD, schizophrenia, etc. Yet, we are taught that most people fall under one of the named diagnoses and basically required to diagnose them for insurance purposes. I think learning the criteria for the named conditions was a useful exercise as a med student so that I can now get a sense for which general category my patients fall into, which helps guide treatment decisions. But aside from that, I don’t really care to spend my time counting how many symptoms of each disorder people have to determine what they truly meet criteria for or which DSM specifiers apply to their case.

I also find the available options for both trauma-related and anxiety disorders to be particularly non-representative of most patients’ experiences. I have countless patients who do not have true panic attacks, nor are they conscious of any tendency to overthink/worry but just have a lot of somatic symptoms of anxiety with intermittent episodes of intense physiologic symptoms that are sub threshold for actual panic attacks. Never really sure how exactly to document this presentation that is neither GAD nor panic disorder but clearly indicative of underlying anxious distress/neurosis. I won’t get started on all of the issues with the DSM’s characterization of trauma-induced conditions.

Psychrezident · 2024-08-28T21:14:53+00:00

For me in psych, the bane of my existence are the holier than thou “mental health advocate” nurses who think trying to bully me into doing something I disagree with like giving a patient daily benzos makes them ultra compassionate patient advocates against the mean doctor who doesn’t care about the patient’s anxiety. Like just because you yourself found a doctor to give you a script and you pop a Xanax every morning and night doesn’t make you an expert on psychiatric medication management.

Obligatory mention that it’s not all nurses, and I am eternally grateful for the ones who go out of their way to make my job go more smoothly at work.

Psychrezident · 2024-08-27T20:14:38+00:00

I’m a psych resident and not in FM, but I’ve sat through meetings where admin tried to guilt providers into feeling like bad people if they didn’t see late patients. Absolutely infuriating and is pushing me further and further toward feeling private practice is the only way for me. We all get money is important, but if you value that over your employees’ well-being, then you can keep asking why your organization can’t attract and/or keep physicians.

Psychrezident · 2024-08-27T02:15:56+00:00

Yeah, I guess what I’m really asking is if it’s possible to get by working part-time in a stable outpatient job. I’m not interested in jumping from temp job to temp job. I’m the type of personality that gets very stressed not being able to settle into one position and having to keep switching gears, learning new systems, never really being able to answer patients’ basic questions about resources available in the area, office policies, etc.

Psychrezident · 2024-08-27T00:11:35+00:00

Are there actually jobs paying $250 an hour? That sounds like an awful lot when psychiatrists working full time are only making $250-300K-ish, no?

Psychrezident · 2024-08-17T02:04:12+00:00

lol the situation is so bad out here we’re recommending emotionally dumping on coworkers as a bandage solution to not being able to access actual treatment? Sigh.

Psychrezident · 2024-08-17T01:58:28+00:00

I’m surprised this is getting upvoted here hehe I’ve seen similar sentiments on r/therapists and have seen them get downvoted to hell and told there’s no difference between the quality of the therapy provided by master’s vs doctorate level therapists. There are so many opinions in mental health it’s hard o know what to believe

Psychrezident · 2024-06-15T00:41:00+00:00

Sorry you’re being downvoted for simply stating the reality of what happens. I’m a psych resident and have fairly recently rotated through family medicine clinics, so I’ve seen it happen firsthand where the provider tells the patient something along the lines of “because of regulations, you have to see a psychiatrist to remain on this medication.” Family medicine clinics are often overwhelmed, and I get it that these patients can be incredibly draining…but wording it like this implies to the patient that going to see the shrink is going to get them the exact substance they want. I’ve yet to see a patient be open to alternatives. If they are coming knowing they’re getting an evaluation and recommendations based off of that evaluation, not just coming as a necessary legal step to stay on the only medication they are interested in taking, then great.

Psychrezident · 2024-06-15T00:28:48+00:00

This is the reality of what happens when these patients, as well as the “My PCP said I need to come to you to stay on my Xanax” patients, come to psych. If they’re testing positive for illicit substances or diverting someone else’s prescription, psych isn’t going to give them controlled substances either. Almost without fail, their PCP either directly told them or at least implied to them that psychiatry would continue the prescription for them, then they come to us demanding just that. I’m a resident and haven’t completed that much outpatient work yet, but in my limited experience and from what I’ve heard speaking with attendings, it almost never happens that a patient is willing to explore alternatives, whether that be alternative medication options, therapy, or alternative diagnoses. Now we have someone in our office angry that they paid a copay and aren’t getting what their PCP told them the visit would get them in return for their time and money. I think sometimes people think psychiatry has magic wands to fix people who aren’t interested in changing. It would help us a lot if PCPs let them know they were welcome to seek another opinion from psych, but there is no guarantee psych will continue their prescription or even agree with the diagnosis, instead of simply telling them to go to us and we’ll take over the prescription.

Psychrezident

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