Kyle McIntire

PSYC 230

Review #8

For this interview I interviewed my father, Robert McIntire. My dad is a respected child

psychiatrist in his mid fifties. Like with most people his life is a lot different than he had

expected it would be. Some aspects of his life are better than expected while others are worse.

His goals and interests have changed quite drastically from when he was a young adult.

When my father first entered college he thought he wanted to be a scientist or a

researcher and would work in an isolated laboratory making discoveries. When my dad tried to

become one he discovered he had very little talent for research and was uninterested by the

tedious work that came with it. Not knowing what to do with his life he started to drink heavily

and showed signs of alcoholism. He described himself as “disintegrating”. He then decided to

give medicine a try and went to medical school. At first he thought he would be involved in the

more scientific parts of medicine but then he discovered that what he really enjoyed was

talking to patients. Instead of working in an isolated laboratory he ended up a child psychiatrist,

a career that requires constant social interaction. Going to medical school was life changing, it

gave him a path to follow and gave his life order and meaning.

Concerning relationships and family, my father had minimal experience with woman

and dating when he entered college. He had imagined himself as remaining a bachelor for the

entirety of his life. Then he met my mother and for reasons he can’t remember decided to get

married. After getting married he didn’t think he wanted children until his first son, Ryan, was

born. After that, he wanted a lot of kids. My father never suspected that he would enjoy being a

dad so much, but also regretted getting married to my mother. He described his marriage and
 Kyle McIntire
PSYC 230
divorce as being much more stressful than expected and didn’t have a clue how bad something

like that could be. During the time of divorce his youngest son and my little brother, Scott,

became mentally ill. The greatest challenge and stressor of his life was watching his son

experience the “Worst depression of any kid I had ever seen. For a time I was sure he was going

to end up killing himself.” I asked him if this event made him a stronger or different person. He

responded, “Made me a stronger person? I couldn’t say. Stress like that definitely has

consequences.”

Looking towards the future, he states that, “I’m just looking for my career to be a source

of income and not a source of stress in my life. I want to be able to get up in the morning and

look forward to going to work. My main Interest in life is seeing my children make a transition

into adulthood. After that and retirement I have no idea what I’m going to do. I just hope I

remain healthy enough to be able to do something. I imagine myself wondering the earth, not

so much traveling, but surveying the world.”

In the end, my father’s life is drastically different than he imagined how it would be

when he first entered college. He changed careers paths, got married to a woman he regrets

getting married to, and found unexpected joy and stress by becoming a father. He doesn’t know

what the future holds but he remains hopeful that wherever life takes him he’ll find other

unsuspected sources of happiness.