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Entrustable Professional Activities in Graduate Medical Education in Psychiatry: A Promising Concept Abstract. Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) are competency-based learning goals derived from observable clinical activities. In undergraduate medical education, they have now been adopted throughout Switzerland as part of the so-called PROFILES catalog (Principal Relevant Objectives and Framework for Integrated Learning and Education in Switzerland). The nine core EPAs to be mastered in undergraduate medical education can serve as a basis for introducing EPAs in graduate medical education as well. We will discuss this approach in the context of graduate medical education in psychiatry and psychotherapy from the perspective of different training contexts and a pilot example. In this position paper, we describe a promising opportunity to improve graduate medical training through the implementation of EPAs, both in terms of the quality of training and thus of patient care, as well as in terms of the attractiveness of the specialty for future residents.

The issue of personality disorders addresses fundamental questions of psychiatry: Is there a clear boundary between normal behaviour and the state of mental illness? Which criteria are defining this boundary? Is a personality disorder really a mental illness or «just» a special variation of an individual lifestyle? This paper reviews the development of the terms psychopathy/personality disorder from the early 19th century to the present-day diagnostic manuals ICD-10 and DSM-5. This debate spreads out–as it does with regard to any other mental disorder–between psychopathological, neurobiological and social sciences approaches. It is of high practical relevance to realize that nowadays effective therapeutic options for patients with personality disorders are available. Therefore, the therapeutic nihilism of earlier times is no longer justified.

This paper discusses the phenomenon of suicidality with regard to patient autonomy on the one hand and the obligation of medical professionals to provide support and treatment on the other hand. The continuation of a broad debate on these issues within the whole of society is mandatory also in the future. Suicide and assisted suicide are topics with high relevance for medicine in general and for psychiatry in particular. They can, however, not be handled by medical specialists alone.

Based on his clinical experience and knowledge in the humanities, phenomenology, and natural sciences, the Swiss psychiatrist and Rorschach expert Roland Kuhn discovered the specific antidepressant effect of imipramine in the treatment of vital depressive disorder. This discovery of the first tricyclic antidepressant drug shows how an education covering the various fields of psychiatry facilitates therapeutic and scientific achievements. Kuhn's methods as a psychiatrist and his papers can show present and future generations of psychiatrist ways to make new discoveries in the field of psychiatry, psychotherapy, and psychopharmacology.

In 1964, Werner Leibbrand (1896-1974) was the first German medical historian to present, in Sudhoffs Archiv, a review of the work of Michel Foucault (1926-1984). This paper examines some of the reasons leading to the fact that Leibbrand's own generation refused to acknowledge the importance of Foucault's ideas, while, later on, younger German medical historians, although impressed with Foucault's writings, failed to acknowledge, first, the close relationship between Leibbrand's and Foucault's world views, and, second, Leibbrand's attempts at introducing Foucault to German medical historians. Leibbrand with his Jewish wife had survived the Nazi period partly in hiding. His attempts at clearing post-war German psychiatry and medical historiography of NS-sympathizers isolated him among his colleagues, many of whom had begun their career during the Third Reich. Leibbrand enjoyed the support by the Swiss medical historian and avowed Communist Erwin Ackerknecht (1906-1988), but later turned against him, possibly because Acknerknecht had called Leibbrand's writings "unscientific". Leibbrand was unable to overcome his antagonisms with his contemporaries. At the same time, opposition to Ackerknecht made him appear a respresentative of the past in the eyes of the younger generation. Thus, when Foucault was accepted by the latter, they were not prepared to examine the work of Leibbrand and realize how close some of the ideas developed by Leibbrand and Foucault had been.

There is a lack of junior scientists in the psychiatry of Switzerland since several years. The paper reports about an investigation of 135 residents and fellows of psychiatric university hospitals of the German speaking part of Switzerland. Results indicate that there is no continuous exchange of informations about projected, ongoing and finished research projects between researchers and clinicians. Residents and fellows are interested in being trained in research methodology and in discussions of actual studies carried out by experienced scientists. They appreciate participating in research projects. Finally some recommendations for the improvement of research promotion in the swiss psychiatry are discussed.

The numerous tasks of psychiatry result in a long list of topics in the postgraduate-training. In Switzerland, the possibility of introducing postgraduate examinations in psychiatry are being discussed, in order to ensure minimal standards of training. This, however, would require clearly defined aims of the training. The present paper tries to open the discussion by proposing a list of learning items which should be required in the training of psychiatrists.