Parat discusses the factors involved in the choice of analysis as a profession, in the choice of a particular patient, and in the capacity to work with that patient. Countertransference is a privileged means of pursuing self-analysis. Although countertransference responses can contaminate or cause difficulty for analytic work, the countertransference-transference currents constitute part of the basic relationship between analyst and patient. Parat also discusses the various background problems in countertransference, the social and ethical frameworks, and the analyst as a witness to reality. Analytic work is inevitably lonely; there are narcissistic rewards as well as the dangers of disillusionment and disbelief in the possibility of real feelings.