In the current state of psychoanalytic research ('mop-up operations' that ordinarily follow the introduction of a revolutionary paradigm), nonanalytic theories of interaction and communication, role and self, can aid the reinterpretation of the therapeutic situation. As a consequence of Freud's use of the mirror simile, the significance of the therapist's real personality for the therapeutic process was for a long time underestimated. The relationship between the analyst's professional role (mirror) and self must be submitted to a new analysis. The growing demand for 'applications' of psychoanalysis involves a greater risk of role diffusion for the therapist.