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This paper presents research into the psychical stakes at play in nursing and caring, based on a survey carried out at three hospitals in Algeria among 82 healthcare professionals. The results presented here draw both on data derived from clinical interviews and a projective psychological test, the Thematic Apperception Test. The author posits that demands are made on the psychical economy of nurses confronted with the suffering and death of patients in their care, through the reactivation of anxieties and archaic conflicts associated with illness and death. As a means of facing up to the suffering carers thus experience, two defence mechanisms are called into action – repression and isolation of affects, thus enabling carers to protect themselves from becoming emotionally overwhelmed.