ABSTRACT
Sometimes the doctor's sympathy is aroused and he approaches the patient's feeling self more closely. Then, unexpectedly, the doctor experiences a sudden threat, a whiff of danger which makes him withdraw again hurriedly behind his defences. The personal self has peeped out tentatively and then disappeared again leaving only the imperturbable facade of the professional self. In doctors' group, they developed the metaphor of the doctor as a kind of 'amoeba' in order to describe the dynamics of this process. This chapter presents stories involving a different kind of defence which seems to be trying to protect both doctor and patient. On these occasions the doctor seems to be shielding the patient from painful feelings which the doctor may find almost intolerable himself. The defences all have in common the need to protect the doctor's personal-feeling self from what seem to be intolerable pain, grief, anxiety or depression.
