The threat mental health professionals perceive in managed care, as indicat
ed by their writings on the subject, is re-examined in light of evidence fr
om an ethnographic study. Fieldwork focusing on clinician experiences of ma
naged care was carried out at an urban community mental health center. Exis
ting explanations of "the threat"-the possibility of deprofessionalization
and the potential for deterioration in the quality of care proved inadequat
e to account for the power it wielded at this site, perhaps because its ful
l impact had yet to be felt at the time of data collection. A "rereading" s
uggests the meaning of managed care for this group of clinicians lies in th
e prospect of being gradually, unknowingly, and unwillingly reprofessionali
zed from critics into proponents simply by virtue of continuing to practice
in a managed care context, and in losing a moral vision of good mental hea
lth treatment in the process.