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GENERATIONAL
PERSPECTIVES
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regular hours and early risings, I decided this would not be satis- sonality. It was a challenge, but has allowed me to bring a solid
fying to me. Ultimately, I returned to my roots by choosing psy- foundation to the work I now do with passion — applying alter-
chiatry. I now knew and understood the person as a whole native, complementary, and holistic medical models to psychiatry,
organism and the abstract/philosophical nature of psychotherapy, creating a niche that truly embraces all aspects of my character.
combined with a sense that the mind was as yet an uncharted fron-
tier to be discovered, appealed to me the most. So what is it that children see and learn from their parents that
makes them want to be in the same profession? In acting, it may
I have often wondered what made be the glamour of the stage, in business, it might be the financial
me decide to be a doctor. rewards, in politics, the wish to influence the public sector. But
for doctors, I think what we as children see the most is a profession
My late brother also chose medicine. Just as my passion was in which, regardless of specialty, is ultimately and deeply rooted in
art and humanities, his was in research and engineering. I chose compassion for the suffering and pain of people and the desire to
psychiatry, he chose hematopathology, doing research and patent- ease that suffering though healing. Compassion is not unique to
ing prototypes for diagnostic tests that may have been very impor- medicine, in fact, can be applied to any profession, but it is what
tant in medicine. I don't think either of us was ever certain why underlies medicine and drives the doctor to be committed to heal-
we became doctors. For me, was it because I had been raised in ing the mind and body. Serving in this capacity is what binds my
that environment and felt comfortable in it? Was it because it was father, my brother, myself and perhaps all physicians. This is what
a common language that I shared with my father? I learned from my father and this is what I hope my child has
learned from me.
Was it simply inevitable? (My son once said he felt “doomed”
to be a doctor because everyone in the family was. He was reas- Helen Pankowsky, MD is in private practice and may be reached
sured he was not, and became an educator instead). at 210-451-1234 or email at helenpankowsky@gmail.com. Website
is www.helenpankowskymd.com.
In retrospect being a doctor seemed so contradictory to my per-
16 San Antonio Medicine • June 2017
