Teaching Psychiatry with a Gender Perspective

Psychiatry, unlike other medical disciplines, plays the unenviable role of a legal and social arbitrator with respect to the lives and conduct of thousands of mentally ill patients. Education goes some way towards preparing the practitioners to deal not just competently, but justly and equitably with patients. Psychiatrists in India must be enabled to address the contemporary complex social and political dynamics in a fair and humane manner through their medical education. This article reviews currently used textbooks so as to examine the content and structure of medical education in psychiatry.