ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a comprehensive reflection on the concept of supervision and on its function in psychoanalytical training. Particular attention will be given to the use of the analyst’s implicit theories in clinical practice. An example of a supervision will be analysed using a conceptual instrument that is the result of qualitative research carried out within the European Psychoanalytical Federation. The implicit and personal theories, following a pioneering idea of J. Sandler, are the result of a variety of factors. As Sandler says, the psychoanalyst, “as he grows more competent”, when he listens to the experiences that his patients tells him, does not apply simple derivations of the theories that he knows because he has learnt them, that is, what we could call “official theories”. As Sandler said, “the investigation of the implicit, private theories of clinical psychoanalysis opens a major new door in psychoanalytic research”.
