ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis seemed often to be recommended without the patient understanding fully what he was embarking on. For instance, some analysts started an analysis before the end of the first consultation hour. This chapter designs to draw attention to some of the pitfalls in consultation, such as the tendency to lay the blame for the ill success of previous treatment on the therapy rather than on the patient's capacity to use it. The technique of analysis and the technique of consultation are not the same. Consultation inevitably has more of an advisory role, however much the analyst try to bring the patient to his own point of decision. A consultation, then, is an extended private talk between analyst and patient in which the analyst tries to get the feel of the patient's personality and to give him the feel of the character of psychoanalysis and of how a psychoanalyst may employ his personality to enrich his professional role.
