ABSTRACT
A psychotherapist needs to be able to manage being hated, accused and insulted. The therapist gauges the patient's mental state by observing the nature of her relationship with others. This more than anything else tells the therapist the patient's state of mental health. The therapist observes carefully how the patient reacts with and treats him and, by extension, gains insight into the distortions of the patient's mental functioning and how this affects others in the patient's life. If the therapist were the sort of person who tends to be treated very badly by people and to be walked over, he would start diagnosing all his patients as being very cruel and thoughtless. The central goal of the therapist is to offer the patient self-knowledge. Therapy works by a patient gaining self-knowledge through understanding. This understanding is acquired within the context of a professional relationship with the therapist.
