A Field-Work Case in the Teaching of Clinical Psychiatry

Abstract

This paper describes the teaching program developed at the University of Virginia in which observation and treatment of a hospitalized mental patient provide the focus for the learning experience of residents without previous training in psychiatry. The performance of each resident vis-à-vis a patient is reviewed by the group, which also engages in learning as a group through preceptorship and didactic techniques. The dynamics of the group itself are put to use in elucidating psychiatric principles. The case of a young schizophrenic with the delusion of “an influencing machine” is described to indicate the manner in which a patient under treatment may exemplify phenomena with which the learner must become acquainted, the meaning of which he is encouraged to weigh with increasing insight, so that he will be guided into good therapeutic practices.