What Is a Balanced Program?

“Balance” has become the watchword of psychiatry programs. It seems that almost all residency training programs claim to be balanced. But what do we mean by this term? This article summarizes the author’s evolving thinking about what makes for a balanced program and suggests that diversity may be a better term. The author advocates that balance is not as simple as teaching both psychodynamics and biological psychiatry. Instead, it entails a considered, intellectual approach that involves long-term vs. other psychotherapies, neuro-science vs. psychopharmacology, theoretical pharmacology vs. practical pharmacology, social psychiatry vs. treating minority patients, representing all viewpoints in psychiatry vs. integrating them.