The art and angst of the mentoring relationship.

The authors review the ancient mentoring relationship in Homer's Odyssey and the mentoring discourse of Socrates. These relationships illustrate the art of inspiring a searching quality in the subject and the angst of the struggle that accompanies perplexity and unknowing. The developmental stages of the mentor and resident in psychiatric training are reviewed. A spectrum of teaching interventions are discussed as they might be perceived by the student. Finally, Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" is used as a metaphor for the art of enlightenment and angst of learning and teaching in the mentoring relationship. (Academic Psychiatry 1997; 21:61-71).