[Simulation, dissimulation, and simulation games in teaching and in surgical diagnosis].

The characteristic aspects of the year's course in Surgical Symptomatology included in the curriculum of the degree course in Medicine and Surgery are examined. The report covers the student's behaviour at the first contact with the patient, his initial reaction and subsequent professional acclimatization, the techniques of didactic simulation and the new diagnostic technologies that essentially follow the dialectic of the "electronic game". Direct personal evidence and selected technical documentation constitute the demonstrative back up for the various points under discussion.