Teaching Psychoanalytic Concepts, Skills, and Attitudes to Medical Students

Abstract

In recent decades the psychoanalytic perspective has been increasingly marginalized in medical school education. This has been driven by political tides, competition with neuroscience education, shifting practice models, and the dominance of an evidence-based perspective. The costs both to medical trainees and to the field of psychoanalysis are considerable. Reasons are presented for why academic psychiatry departments might be motivated to integrate more psychodynamic training into basic medical education and for why organized psychoanalysis might have an interest in developing a greater presence in medical schools. Various formats are discussed in which psychoanalytic theory and technique might effectively be introduced. Finally, broader strategies are proposed for addressing students and their developmental needs such that resistances to learning psychodynamics are reduced.