Since the establishment of a separate Royal College of Psychiatrists and membership examination, psychiatry has been progressively acquiring a special identity of its own that bridges the social and biological sciences. The University of Leicester Psychiatric Training Scheme has responded to the recently revised Membership Examination by developing a two year modular academic programme, which complements the traditional medical (diagnostic) organisation of teaching by incorporating social and psychological views of the subject, which reflect the lessons of modern psychiatric research. It is hoped that the development of a more eclectic approach to the subject and its practice will complement the multidisciplinary and growing community orientation of the profession. We describe here our first attempts to provide an academic programme that responds sympathetically to these important developments.