In this book, Marcus Evans argues that in addition to providing a helpful treatment for patients with serious psychological difficulties, a psychoanalytic approach can help mental health staff develop a better understanding of their patients that complements other ways of thinking about mental disturbance. The psychoanalytic framework, which puts the transference and counter transference relationship at the center of clinical practice, offers an important model for understanding staff-patient relationships. A psychoanalytic approach can also give mental health professionals a language for describing their experiences of, and interaction with, their patients. This framework for understanding can help in the day-to-day management of these changes and fluctuations.