Contemporary approaches to medical education emphasize the importance of doctors in training demonstrating the acquisition of competencies. This approach to educating doctors has been criticized on a number of grounds, not least because a solely behavioural focus risks trivializing medical professionalism. An alternative approach is to look at the formation of professional identity as a legitimate goal of training.

In this presentation, I will describe the behavioural and constructionist approaches to medical education and their implications for psychiatry training. I will make a plea for psychiatry training to renegotiate the balance between the two approaches.