Emeritus Councilor - Clive Brock

CliveClive Brock began teaching medicine ten years after his 1964 graduation as a general practice physician in his native South Africa. He practices and teaches to this day in the United States, as a tenured Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. He founded one of South Africa’s first Balint groups in Durban in 1975 and started one for his residents on his arrival in Charleston in 1981. He credits Balint group work with profound effects on his long, productive career, bolstering his dedication to Family Medicine and his desire to teach. Balint work has given me insights and skills that have transformed my life in medicine.

The impact has been mutual: he has had his own profound effects on Balint work in the United States. A co-founder of its earliest organized form as the Group on Balint Training in the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, he went on to serve as the first Vice-President of the American Balint Society (’90-’93), then as its President (’93-’95), continuing on its governing Council for most of that decade and the next. He was one of the hosts of the first Balint Intensive (1993), the first Balint Weekend and the first International Balint Federation Congress (1994) in the United States. His international Balint efforts have included teaching roles in Australia, Israel and Lebanon.

In keeping with his conviction that evidence would encourage the use of Balint groups, he has been one of the most prolific researchers of Balint work in the United States. We have an obligation to compete in the market place of ideas and clinical practice in clear and convincing ways. He advocates and lives the credo that Balint groups are training cum research enterprises. His peer-reviewed publications on Balint groups span more than twenty-five years, the most recent appearing in 2011.

He plans semiretirement in the summer of 2012, though he is holding on to teaching and Balint work. He and his wife of 46 years, Philippa, have four children and seven grandchildren.
 
His own philosophy of teaching sets out the criteria for judging his success:  [E]qually important to modeling interviewing and demonstrating the physical exam is modeling relational skills, which involves a self reflective understanding of the doctor patient relationship. Clive Brock has inspired generations of students and colleagues with his deep appreciation of the usefulness of Balint groups, his subtle understanding of their process and the quiet integrity of his personal example as a physician and a leader. – Approved by ABS Council May, 2012.