[Is it still necessary to teach community psychiatry to the psychiatric resident?]

After having defined his conception of what community psychiatry is, where it is situated in the line of evolution of modern psychiatry, the author weighs the pertinence of teaching residents knowledge pertaining to a sector in full identity crisis. The effort is worthwhile, since this crisis has permitted the community psychiatrist to better define himself, namely in regard to the other health professionals, and it is therefore easier to determine what kind of knowledge should be transmitted to the resident in this particular field. A tentative teaching program is outlined. In such a program, education aspects should take precedence of training aspects, making the future psychiatrist more prepared to face eventual changes in that field. Such a program should take place in the final part of the residency course following a solid preparation in basic clinical psychiatric knowledge.