On becomine a psychiatrist: discussion of "Empathy and intuition in becoming a psychiatrist," by Ronald J. Blank.

Using the data from Blank's (1976) description of his clinical efforts with his first patient, selected tissues on becoming a psychiatrist and psychotherapist are explored. Considered among the motives for entering this profession are opportunities for the therapist to projectively identify into his patients, and to introjectively identify with and contain his patients' psychopathology. The relationship between empathy and intuition on the one hand, and projection and projective identification on the other, is also studied, as is the need for the application of the validating process in confirming all so-called empathic and intuitive responses on the part of the therapist. Counter-transference influences on the experience and use of empathy and intuition are also investigated. The development of therapeutic misalliances and framework "cures," the distinction between transference and nontransference, the constructive elements contained in essentially countertransference-based interventions, the mastery of countertransference difficulties, and the choice of insight-oriented versus noninsightful therapeutic modalities are discussed.