The Informal Training-Education of a Psychologist

Everyone, as they grow and develop, goes through a process of both formal and informal education. This process includes many parts, but one of the longest involves one's working life. Aspects of this lifelong evolution include both formal and informal learning. My formal education involved earning a bachelor of science degree at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville, a master of science degree, and later, a PhD, both from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. That was followed by additional training at the Wisconsin Diagnostic Center, the Mendota Mental Health Center, and the University of Chicago. However, like all other students in any field of study, my education also involved informal training and learning, which was also at times excellent preparation for other aspects of my life as well as for my professional work. Here, I recall and briefly report some of the elements of my informal education, which helped to prepare me to better understand and work with human beings. This, of course, is a process that occurs in the life of every individual. As I've said many times, life is a school, and we are all the product of our biological inheritance and our life experience. In other words, we are shaped by and evolve from both. If you glance through my recollections, you may be prompted to recall some of your own and, in doing so, more clearly recognize or realize your own process of informal training and educational evolution.

-- William L. Camp, Ph.D., FACAPP