Monk's moments: Going like a bomb

On my first day as a clinical medical student, more years ago than I care to remember, I attended a lecture given by a distinguished psychiatrist. He explained to us that our career choices as doctors were psychologically predetermined. Orthopaedic surgeons, for example, were little boys who did not wish to grow up and who wanted to spend their lives playing with Meccano®. General surgeons, he explained, had psychopathic personalities, apparently ready to rip open people's abdomens and pull out their entrails at the drop of a hat.