Training in Psychotherapy: The Aberdeen Diploma Course

Abstract

In recent years British psychiatric training has received interested scrutiny from the other side of the Atlantic, and there has been appreciation of the broad based approach in dealing with the larger community of psychiatric patients, which as Keir (1964) has pointed out is beginning to occupy the attention of our American colleagues. It has been noted by Cameron (1965), Lesse (1966) and others that there are disadvantages in the predominant approach in American training—which focuses on dynamics, inference and formulation—in that this has produced a neglect of clinical observation and accurate description, giving little knowledge of syndromes or the natural history of psychiatric conditions.