Patients and their clinical predicaments have an impact on clinicians (that psychoanalysis frames as countertransference), but also on medical institutions. Suicidal patients provide a potent illustration of such phenomena. At the individual level, they evoke intense, often negative affective reactions. At the institutional level, they are also « difficult » patients, who often do not conform to the classical, « expected » sick role. This can result in policies too focused on risk assessment and strict procedures, potentially detrimental to proper care. To prevent such defensive attitudes, institutions should provide clinicians an environment in which they are able to work through their relationships with patients, but also with the medical profession and institutions.