When you think of a doctor or surgeon, you think of someone who you can trust—someone who you believe would make the best decision for you and your wellness. Most people wouldn’t think twice about whether or not the procedure that has a 30% success rate would work for them because their doctor assures them that they’re in great hands. Well, what if that procedure wasn’t the best for that patient? What if the doctor was just taking a risk to see if he/she could beat the norm or prove a point? These are some of the things that should be taken into consideration because in reality, there are medical professionals out there who are like this. They believe that because they’ve taken the time to go through the school, they shouldn’t be questioned. The environment created in medical school sets a tone of masculinity and allows students to develop an egotistical and somewhat narcissistic personality before they even step foot in an operating room as a lead surgeon. The support and trust from patients boosts their egos and sometimes pushes them to make decisions that may not be the best at all. Medical law and ethics goes out the window, and that’s most definitely not something that should happen. Being able to literally “hold lives” in their hands, can make some surgeons feel as if they don’t need the help or guidance from anyone else. This can result in many problems including carelessness which can lead to the medical professional getting himself or herself into huge trouble. They may not think that patients notice these things, but the doctors who are supposed to be “Gods” are actually the ones being watched themselves. 

The “God Complex”, a term that many people don’t use often, and probably wouldn’t be able to define, is a belief characterized by feelings of personal ability, privilege, and inability to be wrong. People who possess a god complex display a lack of emotion or feeling, constant misjudgment, and irrational decision making (What Exactly Is a God Complex?”). This belief is often linked to Narcissistic Personality Disorder, or even Bipolar Disorder which are two mental illnesses that can cause a person to display very similar behaviors. These illness and behaviors can eventually lead to the mistreatment of patients and other staff as well. 

Some medical professionals become rude and passive aggressive when their authority is questioned, or if they’re told that they’re wrong or aren’t making the right decisions. However, most people usually don’t question the rudeness, passive aggressiveness, or even credibility of surgeons, because they’re basically at the top of the “medical food chain”. As a result, patients can be pressured into making decisions they don’t want to make which can end up badly (Dowd). The authority of a medical professional sometimes boosts their egos so much that they forget exactly why they do their jobs, resulting in the mistreatment of not only their colleagues and surgical teams, but the people in their personal lives as well. Surgeons can be deemed as “assholes” simply because they have the attitudes and status to go with the title. Once they’ve made it through what many wouldn’t dare to take on, a surgeon is given the unofficial title of “captain of the ship” (Paulas). and are placed in charge of every patient from the second they come into the operating room all the way until they leave. People have sort of come to a conclusion that most highly ranked medical professionals aren’t very caring or as friendly as they’d like, so addressing a doctor or surgeon’s attitude isn’t really the first thing that comes to mind when meeting one. The patient is pretty much more concerned with whether or not the doctor can help them in the way that he/she is supposed to. They give the doctor their trust and in return hope to be cured, or fixed in a sense. No one really thinks about whether or not the healthcare professional really has their best interest at heart because it’s implied. 

In medical school, many surgeons are taught to be tough and nonmoving. Everyone is seen as competition, and only the best of the best will make it to the top. There’s no time for getting attached or making too strong of connections with the other interns and residents. Medical students are taught to take risks and to only apologize when necessary to prepare them for the grit of the profession. This is especially targeted towards male students simply because of the masculinity of the profession and the way males are viewed in society. Even with their small amount of experience in the medical field, med school students already have an ego boost and are a little cocky because of how far they’ve made it. Once they reach their third year, their egos only seem to get worse and they’re thrown into actual clinical medicine. They have to be able to perform the actual operations that they’ve read about in textbooks and journals (Ofri) over the past few years. All the things that would make a smooth transition, like empathy and patience, are replaced with high standards and hardcore medical training. Because surgeons and highly respected medical professionals are thought to be cold and straightforward, the kind and caring medical student turns into a workaholic with a God complex in order to be like those who came before him/her. The treatment of their patients is slightly a reflection of how they’ve been treated through school, and it shows. They develop into a doctor who believes they know all, and that the patient knows nothing and should listen. They now hold lives in their hands (literally) and have to come to the conclusion that the smallest slip up can cost a life-- and when it does, they have to be able to bounce back. They get a “I’m here for a reason because I’m the best” mindset, so each patient eventually becomes a trophy in their cabinet—and who doesn’t want the most trophies?

It can be observed that not only young surgeons and young medical professionals possess a “God Complex”, but older doctors do as well—some more than the younger generations. The complex of older generations mostly comes from being in the field so long that they’ve seen and done more than others. It’s implied that the longer you’ve “been in the game” the more you know and the more you’re capable of, especially when it comes to medicine. Medicine constantly changes which brings into count new procedures and topics of conflict that haven’t been brought to the light until very recently. Some physicians choose to ignore “changes in medical practice [over] recent decades” (Levine) because they don’t want to change what they’ve already mastered. Basically, if it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it. The knowledge and experience of older surgeons and medical professionals keeps them from being questioned at times. They seem to be more familiar with the procedures and protocols than the generations who came after them, which makes them more trusted by patients. This respect boosts not only their self-esteem, but egos as well, and makes them think that they’re the Gods of the medical field. They can’t be told no and sometimes won’t back down until they’ve been “threatened to be put through program(s)” (Whitehead) that decide whether or not they should stop practicing medicine and retire. This can put patient’s lives in jeopardy which is the last thing that needs to happen.

When many people think of a surgeon or doctor, they think of a man, while smaller roles such as nurses are assigned to women. It’s pretty unfair, but that’s just how society portrays the medical field. From the beginning of time, men have always had big names in math and science. Many of the people who’ve discovered diseases and illnesses, and invented procedures and medicines have been men. Having women in medicine wasn’t really accepted at all until about 150 years ago, and even then they weren’t given large roles or the credit they deserved due to the fact that “masculine culture has managed to sustain itself” (Nye) regardless of how many women are up and coming in medicine. Being a woman in a field where everyone expects you to be inferior makes you grow tough skin. Competition in the medical field is fierce, and gender surely plays a large role in it. Men feel that they can’t be shown up in a field that was made for them, and the women push to be the best and disprove any stereotypes. Men are already seen as egotistical beings, so adding a high position of authority, and the ability to basically control people’s lives doesn’t humble them very much. Women in the medical field who have made their way to the top with the “big dogs” have a sense of pride. They know that they’ve beat the odds, and that does make them a little cocky as well. Both genders are given praise for their work ethic and perseverance, even though there may be different motives behind it. Men are praised for being men, and women are praised for not being men. Once they get on their high horse, there’s no getting down, especially if they’ve accomplished things that no other medical professional has. At the end of the day, they’re all humans with the mindset that they can perform godly procedures in order to beat the competition—it’s battle of the sexes. 

Despite the way they’re viewed, every surgeon or doctor isn’t a complete narcissistic person with their own personal agenda. Some medical professionals want to help patients and sometimes go against code to ensure that the best care is given. These individuals may question the description of their position, and even the laws set for caring for specific patients. It’s not unlikely for even a regular person to disagree with the practices or even rules and regulations that are put into place. Some protocols and procedures may seem inhumane or even go against the morals and beliefs of some medical professionals. A doctor or surgeon is supposed to do everything in their power to ensure that a patient receives the type of treatment that he or she needs, but what do they do when that happens? They can’t just leave the patient sick or dying, but at the same time they’re human too., Many would say that doctors or surgeons are selfish or condescending for wanting to prolong the life of a patient because it’s not what the patient wants (Zitter). This can be where the sincerity of these people is mistaken for being power-hungry and having a “God complex”. Some professionals are completely fine with treatments like helping to administer the lethal injection or giving an abortion, while others think there is a better way to go about the situation. Ultimately, it’s the patient’s decision if they’re well enough, and the doctor has to just go with it. The concern of the medical professional still doesn’t go unnoticed, regardless of how it’s perceived by others. 

Various factors can contribute to the thought processes and decision making of the health care professionals that we all trust with our lives. These men and women have been given the opportunity or have, at least taken the opportunity to try and improve the health of their patients on a daily basis. While many succeed, some also have to fail. These shortcomings can be due to the condition of the patient or even just bad timing, but this isn’t always the case. Believe it or not, some doctors and surgeons make decisions that aren’t in the best interest of their patient because they believe that they’ve gotten to a point where the choices they make can never be wrong. The mentality of these health care professionals can be described with the term “God complex”, meaning that he/she doesn’t think that anything they say or do is wrong. This can be because of the struggle they’ve had to go through to get to where they are, their experiences, the full amount of trust their patients give them, or simply trying to beat the competition. The well-being and health of a patient can be compromised due to the carless mistakes of these egotistical and slightly narcissistic “gods”, and can put the doctor in a position they most definitely don’t want to be in. However, in spite of the negativity that these doctors and surgeons give off, there will always be medical professionals who aim to help and care for their patients to the best and fullness of their ability.
