A large urban probation office noted that many "unpromising clients" who had been assigned to relatively untrained officers in an attempt to conserve expensive professional time were some how completing their probationary periods without any further outbreak of misbehavior. This observation led to a re-examina tion of the attitudes of both the professionals and the nonprofes sionals-and to some disquieting conclusions. It was found that the relatively inexperienced men were not just using themselves in the helping process, but were actively involving themselves. Not particularly concerned with the pathology present in their clients, they instead sought out the strengths with which they could rationally work. The professional, by contrast, was unduly in fluenced by the pathology present and the danger of "taking over" for the client or establishing an overly dependent relation ship with him.