Marie 2010

ReferateCongresul Internațional Balint 2009revealed itself when he coughed up some blood. That wasnot till 1917, after the story had been written, but when ithappened Kafka wrote to a friend: ‘I predicted that I wouldcough up blood in A country doctor’. But that wound hasother meanings. Many critics have seized on its sexual symbolism:it has been likened to a vagina and its colour is describedas rose-red, which reminds us of the girl Rose backat the doctor’s house. We know that Kafka’s relationshipswith women were difficult and complicated. He wrote hundredsof love letters but shied away from marriage becausehe felt that living with another person would prevent himfrom being able to write. Although deeply attached to his fiancéeFelice, he seemed to be happier writing to her thanbeing with her. He also had brief affairs with other womensome of which made him feel good. After casual encountershe would come away feeling disgusted with himself. Only atthe end of his life did he find an all too short happiness witha young woman called Dora. But even if that rose red woundis a symbol of sexuality it doesn’t really explain why the youngman says that the wound he was born with was the onlything of value that he brought into the world. Perhaps, assome critics have suggested, the wound also represents hisgift as a writer: a source of joy but also of pain and ultimatelyperhaps of his premature death. And what of that famoussentence about prescriptions being easier than understanding?What does he mean by coming to an understandingwith people? At the time he wrote the story, in the winterof 1916-17, he was agonising about understanding his relationshipwith Felice. Their engagement had been broken offbut they were writing to each other again and even planningto meet. Kafka’s haemoptysis in September 1917, ‘the fatalwound’ provided a good excuse for him to abandon any ideasof marriage because of his poor health.Once you start thinking about Kafka’s writing all sortsof levels of meaning start to reveal themselves. Some of themmay contradict one another but that doesn’t really matter.When I read this story I have the strange feeling that I havelearned something important although I can’t explain whatit is or what it means. It’s a bit like reading a mysteriouslybeautiful poem. The same thing can happen in a Balint groupdiscussion. All sorts of different opinions are expressed.We often feel we have learned a lot but uncertainty remainsIn reading and thinking about A country doctor we learnabout a doctor and a patient and their relationship with eachother as they exist in the mind of the author. We learn somethingabout ourselves and about the human condition. Justlike in a Balint group.AN EXCEPTIONAL POssiBILITY OR A MISSION IMPOssiBLEObligatory reflection groups during the first clinical year of a brand-new undergraduate curriculum.- Anders Häggmark, GP, Karolinska Institutet, Center for Family and CommunityMedicine, - Anita Häggmark, Psychoanalyst in Private Practice, Stockholm, SwedenFor two years we have both – in different ways – beeninvolved in the education of medical students in Stockholm.We have often discussed the similarities of our experiencesin reflection groups (Student-Balintgroups) and primarycare training. Among other things our thoughts about thestudents´ capacity for empathy, that we discussed in a paperat the IBF Congress in Lisbon 2007, have been brought upagain.We will start by describing our different starting points:The undergraduate medical education at the KarolinskaInstitutet Stockholm has got a new curriculum, which hasbeen introduced gradually since the autumn 2007.Some of the changes are:• A reduced core curriculum and instead an increasedvolume of optional courses• One term for an obligatory scientific project• Primary care for 4-7 days each term.• Professional development running throughout theprogramme.The total length of the undergraduate course is unchanged,11 terms. Therefore much stress is laid upon learning”essential facts” during this reduced core.Buletinul Asociaţiei Balint, vol. xii., nr. 45, Martie 201017