Jung on the psychology of the doctor

Though there is treatment known as "minor psychotherapy," in any thoroughgoing analysis the whole personality of both patient and doctor is called into play.  There are many cases which the doctor cannot cure without committing himself.  When important matters are at stake, it makes all the difference whether the doctor sees himself in his authority.  In the great crises of life, in the supreme moments when to be or not to be is the question, little tricks of suggestion do not help.  Then the doctor's whole being is challenged.

The therapist must at all times keep watch over himself, over the way he is reacting to his patient.  For we do not react only with our consciousness.  Also we must be asking ourselves: How is our unconscious experiencing this situation?  We must therefore observe our dreams, pay the closest attention and study ourselves just as carefully as we do the patient.  otherwise the entire treatment may go off the rails....

As a doctor i constantly have to ask myself what kind of message the patient is bringing me.  What does he mean to me?  If he means nothing, I have no point of attack.  The doctor is effective only when he himself is affected.  "Only the wounded physician heals."  But when the doctor wears his personality like a coat of armour, he has no effect.  I take my patients seriously.  Perhaps i am confronted with a problem just as much as they are.  It often happens that the patient is exactly the right plaster for the doctor's sore spot.  Because this is so, difficult situations can arise for the doctor too -- or rather, especially for the doctor.

Every therapist ought to have a control by some third person, so that he remains open to another point of view.  Even the Pope has a confessor....

He wanted to be an analyst.  I said to him, "Do you know what it means?  It means that you must first learn to know yourself.  You yourself are the instrument...If you are not convinced, how can you convince him?  You yourself must be the real stuff.  "