ABSTRACT
This chapter intends that the absence of an adequate model for thinking about the effects of psychotic communication can leave professionals in danger of reacting to unconscious forces without understanding them. Several members of the Fitzjohn's Unit have been involved in consultation and supervision of frontline mental health teams and staff over a long period of time. Effective mental health work depends on professionals' willingness to allow themselves to be disturbed by patients while still maintaining a professionally balanced view. Psychoanalytic thinking and insight provides a model for taking account of the unconscious forces that operate within therapeutic relationships, and thus for understanding the meaning of symptoms. Thus, consultation and supervision provided support for the nurse in her difficult work with the patient by enabling a space for thinking about the underlying psychotic process.
