This paper shows how anthropological observations may throw light on psychoanalytical theory and practice. The suggestive power of role and personal charisma in medicine-men and psychoanalysts works in aid of the decisive factor of revealing psychic truth in psychic change. This is conveyed through the metaphor of interpretations (in the case of psychoanalysts) and/or enacted metaphors (the ceremonies, in the case of medicine-men). The psychoanalyst is exhorted to preserve anonymity, confine his interventions to interpretation, maintain the daily continuity of treatment etc. This has the effect of enhancing the positive transference and with it the charismatic suggestive influence of the psychoanalyst, stemming from the earliest charisma of parents which lies behind early learning processes and the building up of the inner world of psychic truth or unconscious phantasy.