President of Üsküdar University and Psychiatrist Prof. Nevzat Tarhan attended the 1st Cerrahpaşa Career Summit, organized by the Career Planning Club of Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine. Meeting with medical students, Prof. Tarhan gave a talk titled “The Path to Leadership in Academia and Psychiatry.” He emphasized that medicine holds a dual ethical value and that ethics, intention, sincerity, and accountability are the most essential elements both in medicine and in leadership. Highlighting the importance of balancing love and emotions, Prof. Tarhan stated that the most beautiful and meaningful form of medical practice lies in managing emotions effectively.
The event, held in the Ekrem Kadri Unat Amphitheater of the Faculty of Medicine Lecture Halls Building, drew great interest from medical students.
Medicine is a profession with dual ethical value”
Addressing the concepts of medical ethics and professional ethics, Psychiatrist Prof. Nevzat Tarhan said: “Professional morality was first defined in human history within the medical profession. Professional ethics and medical ethics are two distinct concepts. Medical ethics governs the relationship between the physician and the patient, while professional ethics manifests in relationships with colleagues and coworkers. In other words, medicine is a profession that embodies two dimensions of ethical value. Therefore, it is difficult for someone who loses their ethical compass to function healthily in the field of healthcare.
In fact, this applies to all professions. When we look at modern research on leadership, we see that the most sought-after quality is ethical integrity. Intention is extremely important. There is even a concept called the neuroscience of intention. When a person’s intention and sincerity are genuine, others can sense it. This is the foundation of both communication and Islamic psychology. If you want to persuade others, you must first examine your own intentions and goals. A person must first confront themselves and purify their inner world. Those who can face and refine themselves are the ones who truly possess ethical values.”
“The finest form of medicine is emotional management”
Emphasizing the importance of balanced emotional investment, Prof. Tarhan said: “Do not make your narcissistic investment, your investment of love, in just one thing. For example, romantic love is the act of investing all your emotional energy into one person. That is why love is like electricity; it gives a shock, but the bill comes later. We should not direct all our love toward a single source. A person should share their love with their parents, friends, society, country, humanity, and the Creator. In other words, emotional investment must be balanced.
Someone who distributes their love evenly can continue living meaningfully even after losing someone. That is why managing love and emotions is the most crucial thing we must learn to manage in life. If you load all your emotions onto one person and your expectations are unrealistic, it can become psychologically exhausting. The finest form of medicine is emotional management. Emotional regulation is essential in this regard. I also recommend reading the book Descartes’ Error.”
“The thing that makes people make mistakes the most is thinking too fast”
Emphasizing the importance of accountability, Prof. Nevzat Tarhan said: “The thing that makes people make the most mistakes is thinking too fast. Some people act on the first thing that comes to mind or believe whatever they hear last. You can easily manipulate such people, just like a cat plays with a mouse. What we try to teach, especially to children who are more reflective and open-minded, is the ‘Stop, think, act’ paradigm. However, some people act first and think later. This tendency is also seen in individuals with ADHD, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. In fact, this serves as a personal character test.
The control mechanism can also be explained through the metaphor of traffic lights: red means stop, yellow means wait, green means go. The same principle should apply when making decisions. For instance, the secret behind Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent’s success was his rule of not making decisions when angry. He would wait until his emotions settled before acting. Accountability is a crucial trait in leadership. What protects a person is not their good intentions, diligence, or charisma. What truly protects a person is accountability.”
“There must always be a sense of flow”
Drawing attention to the concept of flow, Prof. Tarhan said: “When a person becomes so immersed in what they are doing that they lose track of time, that is a sign of psychological resilience. In such moments, people succeed. But if someone says, ‘Let time just pass, whatever happens,’ success will not come. There must always be a sense of flow. If someone can become deeply engaged in their work, it means they love what they do. For example, a mother caring for her child or a person doing a job they love does not realize how time passes. Career choice should be like that. One should be able to say, ‘This job makes me feel better and happier. It allows me to perform my profession at my best and nourishes me as a person.’
This is also discussed in Kahneman’s book. The capitalist system defines humans as homo economicus, economic beings. In reality, humans are homo psychologicus. People do not make major decisions merely through cost-benefit analysis but in areas where they feel safe and emotionally connected. People take greater risks in environments they love and trust, and they avoid risks in places they dislike or find unsafe.”
“If you lose emotional leadership to the patient, the therapy process slips out of your control”
Emphasizing that communication should be empathetic rather than sympathetic, Prof. Nevzat Tarhan said: “There are two types of thinking: categorical and strategic. A person who thinks categorically perceives a problem as if listening to a boring story. They might listen to the life story of a difficult person, yet mentally they are not truly there. In psychiatric practice, empathetic listening is extremely important. In non-empathetic listening, the listener appears to be attentive, but their mind is elsewhere, and the other person immediately senses this. If your mind is distracted, your listening is not empathetic, and the patient will not return.
Empathetic listening involves an active effort to understand the other person. You take notes, nod your head, repeat their last words. This type of listening is not about forming an emotional bond but about maintaining emotional leadership. If a patient cries, you do not cry with them; you hand them a tissue. If you lose emotional leadership to the patient, the therapy process slips out of your control. That is why during my sessions, after each story, I would note down a key sentence or word. This helped me remember the case and establish continuity in the next session. The patient would not need to repeat their entire story again. The relationship built in this process is empathetic communication, not sympathetic communication. Sympathy means getting swept away by emotions. If you do that, you lose your own balance. When one patient leaves and another enters, you must set aside the emotional weight of the previous case. This is what categorical thinking means. If you do not mentally categorize and shelve the first case before moving on to the second, you will neither assess the second patient accurately nor protect your own psychological well-being.”
“You must leave all your prejudices outside when entering the patient’s space”
Stressing that the relationship between doctor and patient should be horizontal rather than hierarchical, Prof. Tarhan continued: “A person who cannot manage their own narcissism cannot truly be themselves. This is called a professional thought disorder. Knowledge exists, but those suffering from this disorder impose their professional ideology, personal truths, or cultural values on the patient. Just as you take off your regular clothes and put on a white coat before entering a laboratory, you must also leave all your prejudices outside before entering the patient’s space. You have to set aside your cultural biases and personal opinions, because at that moment you are not in a maternal or emotional role, you are in your professional role as an expert. In professional thought disorder, the person sees themselves as superior to the patient. However, the doctor–patient relationship should be horizontal, not vertical. If you approach with a sense of superiority, the patient senses it immediately and distances themselves. In such a case, a therapeutic alliance and a sense of trust cannot be established. The same principle applies to family relationships. Between spouses, friends, or close relations, humility creates a horizontal relationship. But if you think, ‘I am superior, they should follow me,’ then you are establishing a vertical relationship. Those who approach others in a vertical manner eventually find themselves alone.”
