Transference and countertransference in communication between doctor and patient

Patricia Hughes is a senior lecturer and consultant in psychotherapy at St George’s Hospital Medical School and South West London and St George’s Mental Health Trust (St George’s Hospital Medical School, London SW17 0RE, Tel: 0181 725 5521/31; e-mail: [email protected]). She is interested in teaching medical students and in making psychotherapy understandable to psychiatric trainees. Ian Kerr is Senior Registrar in Psychotherapy at and South West London and St George’s Mental Health Trust and the Henderson Hospital. He is interested in the application of cognitive–analytic therapy (CAT) in community mental health teams and is researching CAT in the treatment of antenatal anxiety. “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself“ George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists.