[Infection as a metaphor for the fear of pollution]

Not only nurses, but all kinds of professional helpers find it difficult to talk about their experiences with "filth" and "dirtiness", both terms used in the figurative and in the literal scene. They feel such a subject questions both the ideal of their profession als well as their behaviour as professionals. However, if they fail to refer to these experiences as a subject, they run the risk of not being able to reflect their relationship to the patient and consequently various techniques of dissociation become necessary. But this is not enough to get rid of the feeling of filth and dirtiness, as it is shown on the example of people working in a ward for patients with AIDS. It is conspicuous that the nurses working in this ward consider the risk to get infected with AIDS very low. Nevertheless most of them regularly have an HIV-test made. This fact seems to imply that the test has a very important function in the sense of a social-self-assurance. The study, of which a small excerpt is presented here, is based on depth-psychology interviews. The analysis of these interviews orients itself on the respective latent conflict matters or on given subject matters. The interpretation is based on scenic understanding and the analysis of the course of the conversation. Concerning the latently expressed experiences, the analysis of metaphors was of major importance.