PSYCHIATRIC HISTORY IN PSYCHIATRIC EDUCATION: REPORT OF A SURVEY
WILLIAM F. KNOFF M.D.1
1 Associate Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry, State University of New York, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, N. Y.
One hundred teaching centers in the U. S. and Canada were surveyed for attitudes and practices in regard to the teaching of the history of psychiatry; eighty-five responded. The "standard response" indicated a favorable attitude toward psychiatric history, and an effort to teach it by blending historical aspects with current material. (The pros and cons of methodology must be reserved for another paper.) Twenty-two of the U. S. centers surveyed, and 2 Canadian centers offer systematic courses in this subject to their residents. The average curriculum time devoted to history is 17 hours.2 Sixty-four centers reported that they integrate historical information with their presentations of current theories and techniques.
