Does Psychiatry Attract Psychotics?

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, had a bizarre belief that his new phone number: 14362 had a relation to his age of death just because he got it when he was 43, so he assumed he would die at 62. Freud’s death may have been a physician-assisted suicide at the age of 83 while he was suffering intense pain from terminal, inoperable jaw cancer.


Physicians, in general, are at greater risk of mental illness such as depression, anxiety, mood disorders, and suicide.

Based on a 1980 study by The American Psychiatric Association, it’s believed that Psychiatrists commit suicide at higher rates than other physicians.


Is this enough to believe that practicing medicine can be an ultimate cause for mental illness?

Before we consider this concept, we need to remember that psychiatrists are humans too, many of them interested in practicing medicine as they come from families with problems.

Based on a 1993 study in the Journal of Professional Psychology, higher incidence of family dysfunction, sexual and physical abuse, parental death and psychiatric hospitalization were noted among female psychotherapists than in other women careers.




There is a theory suggests that many people choose mental health as a specialty to get over their own psychological problems. That alone could explain why psychiatrists thought of as psychotics.



Besides, when you are a psychiatrist it’s hard to accept that you have a mental issue as a fact rather than dealing with it .many of mental health practitioners believe that they are immune from psychiatric disorders.



Practicing medicine is stressful, it is a fact, therapists are chronically nervous for many reasons .about 20 and 30 percent of psychiatrists face the suicide of at least one patient, which comes along with a devastating psychological impact. In a 1968 hospital study, psychotherapist noted reacting to patient suicides with feelings of “guilt and self-recrimination.Despite the fact that 1 out of 4 psychotherapists suffers from suicidal thoughts and 1 out of 16 has attempted suicide

Female psychiatrists have a 3 times higher rate of suicide than the general population.


-As it has been noted in a 1992 survey of female and male psychiatrists that more than two-thirds of females and one-third of males have encountered some sort of physical or sexual abuse in early life.-

As stated by Freud himself: The mental health specialty; attracts those who have suffered.

Paul Federn, Wilhelm Stekel, Lawrence Kohlberg, Victor Tausk and Bruno Bettelheim. They are all remarkable mental health specialists who like Freud, committed suicide.


Many people get disappointed about the whole concept of therapy and wonder if therapists can truly help people, how comes that they commit suicide?

A study from the University of Scranton has revealed two findings after considering this issue extensively;

First: therapists experience distress as much as other professionals but they deny their illness.

Second: when therapists treat patients they follow theories and medications but when battling their own illness they become hardheaded and prefer techniques like meditation and chats with friends.