The pressure on mental health services to move patients on quickly, and the emphasis on the recovery model, can encourage a superficial assessment of the patient's difficulties. The author argues that a narrow definition of the medical model based on the presence or absence of symptoms ignores the deeper psychic structures that govern thinking and behaviour over time. A psychoanalytic assessment can offer a dynamic picture of deeper psychic structures in the patient's internal world. This is particularly important with psychotic patients who may successfully use denial and rationalization to cover up their underlying psychopathology. The developmental perspective inherent in the psychoanalytic view can also give a picture of the patient's propensity to repeat certain aspects of his/her psychopathology. In addition, a psychoanalytic approach may shine some light on the relationship between relapse and risk behaviour.