MEDICAL SCHOOL ELECTIVES ON FAMILY ATTITUDES, SEXUAL BEHAVIOR, AND MARRIAGE COUNSELING

On the basis of a 3-year experiment, we believe that there is a body of scientific data on family attitudes and sexual behavior sufficiently developed for communication to medical students as part of the regular medical curriculum and in supervised marriage counseling. Student response indicates interest and receptivity, which become correlated not only with the theory and practice of medicine, but also with the personal needs of the students. These electives make a contribution to the medical student's vocabulary, to his concepts of the personality in social interactions, and to his grasp of many symptomatic configurations expressive of the tensions of our times, particularly in the area of marriage. We plan in 1955 to focus the material more intensively on the senior medical student who is about to emerge in his professional role, and, at appropriate opportunities, to emphasize what he can do to be helpful to his patient. The experiment so far supports the suggestion that the medical curriculum may in time properly devise means for supervised participation of a majority of senior students in the study and counseling of marital problems as they relate to the practice of medicine.