It’s good when the chosen profession brings pleasure and satisfaction. In this case, they do not often think about the choice made. It is not difficult to explain the choice of profession when the dynasty of military men, doctors, scientists, artists, etc. continues. And yet it is interesting to understand how a person’s unconscious influenced the choice he made. Here are some interesting observations, in my opinion, from the psychoanalytic practice of myself and my colleagues. A girl from a relatively prosperous family marries a man who has served time in prison. At the same time, she herself dreams of becoming a lawyer and working in the police. None of her family members have anything to do with the police, military, law, or criminals. While working with her, it turns out that the girl was adopted in early childhood and taken to live in another region of the country. None of her former relatives are left alive and she has no connection with her homeland. Gradually clarifying the situation, it becomes known that the girl’s biological parents were alcoholics and led a chaotic lifestyle with fights and leaving home. The girl was abused and starved until she was taken from her parents and given up for adoption. There are almost no memories left in the girl’s memory at the level of pictures from the past. She had a good childhood in her new family. But at the level of feelings, the memories turned out to be unbearable. The desire to establish order and justice, establish the law, punish rapists, and warm the homeless took root in her mind. Having a good new family of parents, she found a husband with whom she lived in fear, similar to early childhood fears in her previous family. And thus, she fueled the desire to acquire the profession of a person who could establish law and order - a lawyer - a policeman. Or a young woman who became a famous composer, a successful musician, a vocal teacher at a conservatory, who was fully established in her profession and enjoyed it. But deep down in her soul she had a dull melancholy and dissatisfaction. She herself wanted to sing from the stage and have success as a singer, while doing nothing to promote her dream. This woman comes from a family where mom was an accountant, dad was an economist, and there were no musicians in the family. While working with her, she remembered that in her distant youth, when the client herself was just a baby, her parents performed in an amateur ensemble. Mom sang, dad played instruments. And the girl was often behind the scenes. Watching her parents perform, she saw how happy her mother was on stage. Then life for the family became difficult, the parents stopped performing and gave up singing and playing altogether. There were many bitter moments in the life of this family, and the girl never saw her mother happy again. And she organized her professional activities in such a way that she wrote songs and taught singing. As if she was satisfying her mother’s long-standing desire, as if she was making her happy. And she was quite successful on this path. But she “didn’t dare” to sing, since this prerogative belonged only to the mother in the unconscious of this woman. Or when a man’s mother died very young from a long illness in childhood. The boy felt a desire to save her, despair, helplessness. And then he chose the profession of a doctor, and became very successful in his profession. These are those cases when the release of feelings and drives led to a positive result and transformed them into professional activity, where a person feels quite good. But sometimes such sublimation has a negative transformation of unbearable feelings and drives. For example, when people find themselves on the other side of the law. Or when in your chosen profession there is an unfulfilled desire to become someone. One of the cases from practice shows how a man is a successful lawyer, has a good career, and holds a large position. But the internal contradictions of this person are that he wants to become the main key figure in his field.