For Whom the Id Tolls (IN: Identifying Suicide Potential, ed. by D B Anderson and L J McLean)

Potential suicidal people do not know they are angry. Depressed or anxious they are at a disadvantage; they need help and may not survive without it. The therapist has to face the fact that the most important instrument is herself and that she is capable of the same feelings which can be stimulated by contact with such a person, that she is dealing with a communicable danger, that she must be interested and understanding but need not and should not assume the patient’s emotional burdens.