ABSTRACT
Today, expert supervision is a cornerstone of training in both psychoanalysis and group psychotherapy, but before formal training programs arose, leaderless coffee-house supervision was a prime agency of training in these fields. This chapter presents a three-year experiment that proved extremely useful in complementing the authors' formal training. It includes work that embodies the three features of analysis as set forth by Freud: investigation of unconscious motivations as therapists, reduction of defensive operations, and exploration of transferences to each other in an intimate collaborative atmosphere. In the development of psychoanalytic technique, the study of transference clarified the ways in which the patient uses the therapeutic relationship to meet his inner needs. One outgrowth of our endeavors has been elaboration of an analogous hypothesis about countertransference: unconsciously, the therapist (a) maneuvers his patients into roles which best fit his needs, and (b) integrates his defenses against anxiety with complementary or corresponding defenses in his patients.
