Furthermore, if one's nature is really true, then one cannot be cut-off from it. Sullivan seems to use "nature" to mean "essence," which, in turn, means "being." The idea that one could "be" without "being" is non-sensical, absurd. But if this paradoxical absurdity were left alone, it might be of some assistance, for if a patient has no idea of what he or she is, then he or she has the freedom to discover it on his or her own. The problem is that therapists tend to place upon the patient the therapist's, or frequently, as Sullivan does, someone else's (Winnicot's (ibid.)) concocted abstraction of what the person is supposed to be. The patient is then left no room to discover for themselves what their own being is.