Mentoring has been adopted in medical schools as a strategy to support and stimulate the professional development of medical students. However, the literature has seldom focused on the mentor, a crucial element of this archetypal relationship. The purpose of this paper was to understand the motivations of a group of mentors and to identify possible changes that take place over time. It is a qualitative study wherein 14 mentors involved in a Mentoring Program of a Medical School were interviewed. Mentors reveal the desire to recover the old, meaningful and close master-apprentice relationship. Symbolically, they seek to stay in touch and take care of their "internal wounded student". Along the journey, mentors may - but not necessarily will - transform and be transformed by others.
Mentoring; Mentor; Analytical psychology; Medical education
