Eighteen psychiatric trainees from St George's Hospital were placed in three local general practices for periods of six months each. The aim was to broaden their postgraduate education by an experience of primary care and to test the feasibility of such a scheme. Their assessments of the placement were canvassed by postal questionnaire. All considered the experiment a success but there were a number of problems. Resistance among the trainees was much greater than expected. Some of the relationships in practice posed problems for them and the ongoing demands of their psychiatric training exceeded the practices' expectations. Supervision by the GP trainers was rated very highly and old knowledge returned rapidly.

It can't be easy being the answer to the world's most obvious quiz question but Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, seems to take it in his stride. Or at least he does now – there was a time when drinking and disappointment made it hard to tell what he thought. According to One Small Step, a superb mini-series of documentaries put out by BBC2 in July to commemorate Apollo 11's historic landing 25 years ago, returning from the moon left him let down and lacking direction. But that was the aftermath of the mission as a whole, Aldrin insisted, and nothing to do with having to follow Neil Armstrong out of the lunar module.

Roisin Kemp explores the fact and fiction behind Guy de Maupassant's Le Moria

Continuing medical education (CME), or continuing professional development, will now receive special attention in the Psychiatric Bulletin (Kerr, 1994). A report from the Special Committee (of Council) on CME examining consultant psychiatrists' experiences and opinions on CME has already been published (Sensky, 1994). Two further aspects of the work of the Committee are now reported.

Multi-agency review of the diversion of mentally disordered offenders in the Southampton area did not reveal particular problems or lack of professional interest, but delays and difficulties could occur at any stage. To enhance the diversion process a facilitator approach was established. An experienced social worker undertook the roles of acting as a link, educator, supervisor and monitor. This has encouraged discontinuance of criminal proceedings, assisted the integration of mentality disordered offenders into ordinary psychiatric services and reduced the need for specialist assessment and care.

“…; and the tone of the chapel bell, coming across the Valley of the Brent, still reminds me, morning and evening, of the weft-remembered and mingled congregation of the afflicted, and who are then assembling, humble yet hopeful, and not forgotten, and not spiritually deserted.”

As a function of the Christian ethic, monasteries in Britain from the Middle Ages onwards set aside a section for the care of the sick. The monastic tradition ensured that the spiritual needs of the physically sick were well taken care of: chapels formed an integral part of the building complex and chaplains were, of course, constantly on tap. The mentally sick were less well served, however. For example, the second building to be occupied by St Luke's Hospital, London, opened in 1787, did not even boast a chapel, a distinction shared with Bethlem, the other major charity asylum, then occupying a purpose-built structure in Moorgate in the City of London.

Is it possible for a Jewish woman in 1938 New York to develop hysterical paralysis of her legs in response to events in Nazi Germany? And how much are her symptoms a reaction to longstanding difficulties in her marriage to a man who is impotent, autocratic, subject to sporadic violent rages, and uncomfortable with his Jewish identity? Is it appropriate for an honest play which explores issues of prejudice, oppression, tryanny, and genocide to be simultaneously humorous and entertaining? What if at the end one feels almost as moved by the miserable (and dead) husband as the heroine, who finds the power to walk again only when her husband expires? These are the difficult questions posed by Arthur Miller in Broken Glass, his latest play recently in repertory at London's National Theatre. The weighty themes are leavened by the hallmark wry humour, sparkling dialogue and deft characterisation.

The importance of thorough induction courses for junior doctors when they start new Jobs has been highlighted. This paper describes an induction course for trainees in psychiatry starting work in a community trust which included information on how to interact with the personnel department, on the services provided by the trust and on the organisation of education within the trust. The results of feedback from the trainees are presented showing that they found it a valuable experience.

Candidates taking multiple choice question (MCQ) examinations are often unsure of the best strategy to use when uncertain of the answer to a question. Some authorities advocate a cautious ‘never guess' strategy and others suggest a bold ‘guess everything’ approach. In this study, candidates who had taken a MCQ paper were asked to go back and guess the questions initially marked ‘don't know’. The resultant ‘guess scores' ranged from −0.6% to 6%. It was concluded that many candidates could substantially increase their scores by adopting a bolder approach. It is proposed that the guess score is a useful measure of the effectiveness of the candidate's MCQ technique.

For the devotee of Wim Wenders, the German film director, London was the place to be this summemr. The National Film Theatre showed all his films, his latest (‘Far Away, So Close’) opened, and the full five hour cut of Until the End of the World’, was shown in July.

Little has been published by trainees of their involvement in the organisation of their academic curriculum. This article discusses the experience of two trainee representatives to the Post Graduate Training Committee (PGTC) in Fife with particular regard to three areas (academic programme, general assessment and exam preparation) over a one year period.

At a time when children who kill are in the news, a play at London's Cockpit Theatre portrays their disaffected world. Kwame McKenzie reviews.