ABSTRACT
This chapter describes aspects of the supervision of therapists who have not had a formal, comprehensive training, part of which would have included psychoanalysis for themselves. It argues that the supervisory process with such people throws light upon several important aspects of all psychoanalytic supervision. The chapter shows that a therapist's work will deteriorate at the moment at which he is unable to deal with the countertransference in a professional, psychoanalytic manner. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a branch of knowledge having its own rules of conduct and understanding—or technique and theory, as these are most usually described. There are many reasons why a reasonably successful personal analysis or therapy is central to enabling a practitioner to function better as a therapist. The chapter discusses the way in which a therapeutic experience will allow the personality to be more tolerant of external reality, and, the manner in which it promotes greater acceptance of internal reality.
