Abstract
For many years group dynamics or group psychotherapy has been used in training of psychiatric residents. An attempt is made to define the specific learning problems facing these residents.
The needs of the resident can be met in many ways, but the participation in a group seems to be particularly meaningful. Three stages are described during the group process:
1) The period of euphoria, which coincides with the beginning of the training and only lasts a few months. This is when the resident toys with new words, new concepts and there is a magical connotation to all of this.
2) A depressive period, when the resident begins to ‘feel’ his many difficulties in dealing with patients. He also has to face the many psychiatric ideologies confronting him and he finds it impossible to have a total theoretical grasp of the psychiatric knowledge. This situation creates a good deal of anxiety and it is particularly during this phase that group dynamics can be useful.
3) A period of adaptation. Adaptation is used here as it is put forward by the ego psychologists, that is, as being an active process.
Finally an analogy is drawn between the maturation and learning taking place in the psychiatric resident and the adolescent's search for identity and the use of group dynamics as a valuable tool in this on-going process.