ABSTRACT
Undertaking a clinical training requires a helpful, aspirational, protective superego to ensure that theory is learnt and integrated and clinical work is carried out in a professional manner. But research indicates that anxiety, and the extensive personal challenges of training, can activate shame and a persecutory superego which impedes and disrupts learning processes and learning relationships. This chapter explores these dynamics from the perspectives of the trainee, trainer and training organisation and examines how to ensure that training minimises persecutory superego dynamics.
