This issue begins a new regular column for the journal, "A Resident's Perspective." This has come about quite fortuitously. Dr. Joel Oberstar, the writer of the column, at the encouragement of his Residency Training Director, contacted us proposing the idea. He sent us a sample column and we liked it so well that we agreed to run at least four of them over the next year. Dr. Oberstar, whose background includes journalistic work from high school through college and medical school, impressed us with his clear writing and his attention to details of the resident experience that often are not noticed by psychiatric educators. I certainly never thought about what it feels like to be told where not to put one's hands during a psychiatric emergency.

Dr. Oberstar graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Medicine and is currently in PGY-1 of the Harvard Longwood residency. We hope that our readers find Dr. Oberstar's perspective interesting and illuminating as we track him through his internship in the coming year.