Seminar 9. 17 July 1977. The Italian Seminars

We are all concerned with mental health from a responsible position. I am not considering as a part of our immediate discussion what we as individuals feel; as people in a position of responsibility with regard to patients, what we feel mentally or physically is a matter of no consequence whatsoever. It matters to us individually, but to no one else. It doesn't matter how tired we are, how physically or mentally ill – all those are matters of complete indifference. They are only facts, like any other facts about which we can do nothing and about which nobody else is going to do anything either. Your mental or physical health is a fact like the weather or the geographical location in which you are working, which is otherwise of no consequence. Whatever those facts may be, as responsible people we have to exercise our skill; we have to be capable of thinking clearly, no matter what is going on.

Our problem is how to be sensitive to the sufferings of people who come to us for assistance, but not to be so affected by them as to interfere with our thinking clearly about the work in hand. In certain situations we can be unmistakably aware of the danger in which we are, particularly those in which we are threatened with physical violence. It is still important that we should continue to think clearly even when it is also clear that our lives are in danger. But most of the time, that sort of danger is not at all obvious; our circumstances can appear to be comfortable and consequently reassuring.

In war, most of the people who are engaged in the combatant forces are aware that the fact that there are medical services is really irrelevant. It could be very seductive; it might seem to exert such a pressure that troops would like to be looked after instead of having to fight the enemy. Even in putting forward that picture I am drawing attention to something which is relatively simple. It is difficult to

realize that analysts and those concerned with helping mental sufferers fa