In clinical psychiatric practice, the use of various psychotherapeutic techniques is a useful therapeutic tool in its own right and a helpful adjunct to other forms of treatment. Training of post-graduate students of psychiatry in the practical use of psychotherapeutic and related psychodynamic principles is of prime necessity. Where, for various reasons, the use of the medical model of management dominates clinical practice, the task of supplementing it with a psychotherapeutic approach faces considerable resistance. A brief account of the author's efforts in introducing a psychodynamic orientation is such a situation, and his experiences and observations, are presented and discussed.