The work of being a psychoanalyst is today, more than ever, a condition of loneliness, isolation, and confusion. It used to be that the physician was secure in his position as an authority in society. He was the one, it was believed, who could “see reality” and could separate the mentally healthy from the mentally sick. Today, the kingdom of the psychotherapist's authority is dissolving. Our patients, telling us of their friends involved in action oriented encounters, equate one therapy with another and do not