On the learning process in medical students disturbances as a symptom and a disease

The role of emotional factors in the learning process has been recognized by the student as well as the educator in medicine. The medical student may develop disturbances in learning under appropriate circumstances. These disturbances may be the symptom of a disease but not the disease itself, or the disease but not the symptom, or the disease and the symptom at the same time. The most frequently encountered symptoms of the disturbance among the medical students include: loss of interest in studying; decrease in motivation for medicine; difficulties in concentration and retention; student's difficulty in applying himself; selective disturbance in learning certain subjects within medicine; impairment in the capacity to discriminate relevant from irrelevant data; and the tendency toward obsessive thinking and compulsive actions. The role of fantasies in these disturbances is explored. The development of the capacity to learn and some etiological considerations in its disturbances are formulated.