| Abstract: | Comments on "A postdoctoral residency program in clinical psychology" by J. Matarazzo (see record 1965-13326-001). Matarazzo describes an interesting postdoctoral training program in clinical psychology in a medical school setting. A major feature of this program is the intent to train young psychologists to assume "full professional responsibility for patients and clients." The assumption of "full professional responsibility" is incompatible with an extension of the professional's formal training period into the postdoctoral years. The multiple-consultant and highly institutionalized approach characteristic of the medical setting actually attenuates the degree of responsibility that any one professional is required and able to assume, rather than to intensify it. A final objection could be directed at the basic concept of the desirability of one person's assuming "full responsibility" for another. It would seem to me that the use of this concept in Matarazzo's report may in itself be an indication of how a medically based idea can inadvertently infiltrate the thinking of those who had been exposed for years to such a setting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
