Introduction to issues and problems -- Scope of the problem: relation of institutional context and clinician behavior -- Training of physicians: the unintended impact of the Flexner report on medical education -- Inadequacies in the training of teachers and lawyers -- Examples of uncaring behavior -- Psychiatry: the caring and compassionate profession? -- Clinical psychology: new profession, old answers -- Behind and beyond labels -- The process of understanding: the relevance of Stanislavski for the clinician