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To the Editors: To gain sufficient psychological distance and educational distance to evaluate training programs as discussed in “Training as an Impetus to Ego Development” [Enid Balint, The Psychoanalytic Forum, Vol 2, No. 1], at times one has to work in another field, seemingly removed from the psychoanalytic training process itself. It is just this that I have learned to appreciate by and from working with medical practitioners, the greater majority being general practitioners.
Psychologic operations in groups provide remarkable opportunities for learning. However, where to set limits, where to focus, what to utilize, with what consistency, for how long, and most important, with what aims', requires considerable forethought. When working with a group of general practitioners, it is necessary to have some knowledge of the nature and scope of their medical commitments and problems. Skills of perceptive listening and discreet participation are “musts” for the teacher. I say teacher because my definition is an open one, granting him more than one role and pattern of relating to a group. Most certainly it cannot be that of an incontrovertible, continental professor, nor that of a secondary school instructor talking down to his pupils, using the index finger for emphasis and redress.
Training in adult programs, in its modern sense, is used especially when unvarying proficiency and reliability for specific jobs is mandatory. When used too exclusively, it produces technicians—not educated and trained professional functionaries. When used alone, it can build in restrictive ritualism and rigidity, robbing the trainee of ingenuity and flexibility needed when he is confronted with dramatic situations, critical moments, the unexpected and atypical patterns encountered in practice.
In the role of leader, utter passivity, dogmatism, impetuous intervention, or an autocratic manner will not maintain a forum in which facts come forth in the service of trut