Teaching Psychodynamic Therapy to Hardworking Psychiatric Residents

In practice, the classroom teaching of sequentially developing elements of theory and practice in psychodynamic psychiatry to hardworking residents can founder on residents' frequent absences, on-call pages, late arrivals, and early departures. These obstacles can be partially overcome by focusing narrowly on topics that can be explored within the length of a single lecture. Introduction to dynamic psychiatry can be accomplished in this teaching milieu through application of pedagogical techniques of humor, sharply delineated case material, surprise, group participation, demonstrated immediacy of application, theater, and an avoidance of arcane terminology or nuanced theoretical differences.