Freud thought that psychoanalysts should model themselves on the surgeon. It seems as though psychiatrists will once again have to turn to the surgeons for advice and inspiration.

Although strictly speaking aimed exclusively at surgeons, the scope of this book is certainly much broader and higher. The book is certainly capable of providing plenty of much needed inspiration for all psychiatrists involved in education especially in the clinical settings.

The book is written by Linda De Cossart, a surgeon, and Della Fish, a Professor of Education at King's College. The book's premise is that knowledge is rooted in practice and that practice is more important than any set of ideas, the implication being that practice should always be the subject of serious scrutiny by the practitioner.

As they say in the Introduction, they do not wish to offer here any ‘undigested educational theory’. Rather they wish to engage teachers to investigate their practice so as to develop ways of teaching and learning which are more up to date as well as being more suitable for the clinical settings. The authors draw on their considerable combined experience in surgery, surgical teaching and educational practice and provide very useful advice.

The book is divided into two parts. Part one is concerned with educational principles and ideas. Part two is about teaching, learning and assessment. Both parts of the book are based on a sound educational foundation.

The layout of the book, perhaps in keeping with the senior author's own background in curriculum design demonstrates the authors' view that assessment as well as everyday teaching and learning, including principles and values, are indeed equally important parts of day-to-day educational practice, although drawing a clear distinction between the two.

However, the authors take issue with much contemporary teaching in the clinical settings based exclusively on the testing of clinical ability, the competency-based approach now so favoured in medicine and embraced by the new curricula and PMETB.

Instead they favour a more reflective approach to teaching and learning which they say is more in keeping with the practice of education as well as being more suitable for the clinical settings. This is a completely untested area requiring further investigation. However, I find the authors' constructivist stance very convincing.

There is a dearth of books concerning medical education. This, therefore, is a much-needed book. There is much here that is directly relevant and could immediately be put into practice, for example the systematic use of written reflections, known as ‘critical incidents’ as teaching aids for further reflection and learning and many of the ideas here provide useful hints for research. As the authors say this is not a book to be read ‘from top to bottom’ as a ‘novel’, but something to be used and dipped into repeatedly from time to time.

As a clinician, working in clinical settings, I found chapter 5: ‘Reflection: An Essential Means of Learning in Clinical Settings’, particularly useful. I also enjoyed the explanation of Action Research. And unlike other reviewers (e.g. Drife, Reference Drife2006), I did not find the history of reflection unreadable.

Psychiatrists involved in education and college policy-makers will find much to learn from this book. If we consider that so much is presently still undecided in medical education, including psychiatry, this is perhaps also a very timely book. Psychiatrists should definitely start learning from the surgeons.