Police are searching for a man who slashed an Upper East Side psychologist to death with two long knives and a meat cleaver and left another therapist seriously injured.

Wanted posters have been distributed around the city and police have contacted agents who monitor points of departure.

Yesterday, police pored over evidence left behind at a bloody scene, where overturned furniture, broken window shades, and bent knives attested to the intense struggle between the therapists and their attacker Tuesday night. Police studied surveillance video that showed the suspect escaping out a back door, ran fingerprint and DNA tests, and puzzled over two suitcases he left behind.

One was filled with rope, duct tape, and more knives, and the other with women’s clothing, including slippers and a blouse, and several adult diapers.

The surveillance tape showed a man who looked to be in his 40s entering the lobby of the building at 435 E. 79th St. at exactly 8 p.m., carrying a small black bag and rolling a large suitcase behind him. He was dressed in a long green coat and sneakers. He walked briskly.

After telling the doorman he had an appointment with Dr. Kent Shinbach, one of several doctors with offices in a suite on the first floor of the building, he proceeded quickly up a stairway on the right side of the lobby.

Once he was inside the reception area of the doctors’ office, police said the man sat down and made small talk with a patient waiting to see Dr. Shinbach, who is a geriatric psychiatrist.

After the patient entered Dr. Shinbach’s office, the suspect apparently then entered the office of Kathryn Faughey, 56, who was the only other person besides Dr. Shinbeck and the patient in the office at the time, according to police. Police said she usually kept her door closed while she was working.

Several moments later, police said Dr. Shinbeck heard screams coming from Faughey’s office and ran to respond.

Inside, Dr. Shinbach discovered the man covered in blood and Faughey’s body lying beside her desk, according to a police account. “She’s dead,” the man said, and then lunged at Dr. Shinbach, police said.

The ensuing struggle lasted for 10 minutes, ending only after the man pinned the doctor to a wall with a chair and stole his wallet.

Dr. Shinbach, who is in his 70s, was seriously injured, with gash wounds to the head, face, and hands, but was expected to survive after being treated at New York Hospital. Faughey was pronounced dead at the scene, with 15 stab wounds to the head, face, and torso. Police said they believe a deep gash in the back of her head was the fatal blow.

A 9-inch knife was found near Faughey’s left foot. The meat cleaver, which was missing the plastic covering on its handles, was found across the room near some bookshelves, and another knife was found under the doctor’s desk.

Dr. Shinbach told police the man was not his patient, and that he didn’t recognize him.

Footage from another video camera situated in the building’s basement showed the man walking rapidly through a downstairs hall at 8:59 p.m., about an hour after he arrived. He paused briefly to set down the suitcase and second bag, and then disappeared out an emergency exit that leads to an alleyway on the west side of the building, leaving the bags behind in the hallway.

Police suggested the route might not have been obvious to someone who had not been in the building before.

“He seemed to know exactly where he was going,” a police official said.

Police said they have questioned the other patient who was in the office at the time of the attack, and interviewed Faughey’s husband and Dr. Shinbach. They said they were investigating whether the attacker was a patient of Faughey or one of the other doctors in the office, or the relative or companion of one of her patients.

On her Web site, Faughey had written that she specializes in relationships and couples therapy, particularly “relationship problems with the internet.”

“Very practical and to the point, I practice cognitive psychotherapy effectively — in a warm, clear, and lively manner,” she wrote on the site. “My sessions move quickly. I am interactive, and I give feedback.”

Faughey lived across the street from her office, in a high-rise apartment building where several neighbors described her as “lovely,” “highly educated,” and “very attractive.”

Police officials said it was not immediately clear what the motive for the attack was, but noted that besides the wallet containing $90 in cash, it did not appear that the man had taken other items from the office.

After the man left, Dr. Shinbach was able to yell out the window of Faughey’s office, which looks out onto East 79th Street, to call for help. A doorman leaving the building at that time called 911.

As of yesterday afternoon, detectives did not have any leads on the identity of the man, and were waiting on the results of forensic tests on blood, DNA, and fingerprints. Police said they were also examining Faughey’s desktop computer for clues.