Abstract
Objective: When too many psychiatrists have been behaving like prostitutes, it is instructive to compare and contrast that ancient profession with our own. The present paper sets out to do that.
Methods: Codes of conduct are compared and clinical anecdotes discussed.
Results: Both professions give time and services in exchange for money. Guidelines for each highlight limits and boundaries. A danger is ‘falling in love', a quasi-psychotic experience that facilitates some phases of development but which can be destructive when uncontained. Since the advent of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), transference and countertransference are concepts no longer widely used. However, many behaviourists know the importance of a therapeutic alliance and see the therapist as a figure who can invoke idealization and dependence. All psychiatric treatment has a developmental aspect because it seeks to replace primitive feelings and impulsivity with mature behaviour. Adolescence brings not only sexual development but emotional change from the dependent child to the adult capable of care and bonding. Sexual attraction is more mature the more the element of neediness is modified by care and concern.
Conclusions: Peer groups are commended for both professions. In psychiatric training, human development should be learnt not just as theoretical background but as lively reality in clinical work, alerting psychiatrists to monitor their own maturity in the doctor-patient setting. The value of personal therapy or analysis is discussed, together with possible adverse sideeffects.