ABSTRACT
Supervision, this most critical vehicle of psychoanalytic training appears rarely to be formally taught as a course, nor is supervision of the beginning supervisor often considered mandatory. Status as a master clinician with proven abilities in the areas of pedagogic skill, tact, and patience are considered the qualifying credentials. Supervi-
180 Psychoanalytic Approaches to Supervision
sion itself, similar to a tutorial, is at times frankly didactic, at times illustrated with case vignettes and personal reactions from the supervisor's practice. In this intimate learning situation, the complexities of the supervisor's cognitive and affective teaching task are grounded not simply in knowledge of theory and practice but also in the supervisor's own multiple identifications. The supervisor at times identifies with the therapist, with the patient, and with his or her own previous supervisors. These identifications-insofar as they remain transient, partial, and can be made conscious-will inform supervisory empathy. Empathy-often called the sine qua non of psychoanalysis-can likewise be the bedrock upon which the supervisor constructs a model for understanding the therapist's working self and learning difficulties. Multiple identifications by the supervisor can provide many avenues toward empathically informed teaching. Nevertheless, if these identifications remain prolonged or unconscious, they may fuel unproductive parallel processes which reverberate throughout the supervisor-therapist-patient system.
