ABSTRACT
Dr. Oberman refers to the book on psychoanalytic supervision edited by Wallerstein (1981), reporting in detail on one supervisory process in which a skillful, sensitive, insightful supervisor finds himself increasingly at odds with the candidate, one who subsequently became an outstanding member of our psychoanalytic community. The difficulties that developed in that supervisory process had little to do with the relative competencies of analyst and supervisor. I suspect that the problem lay elsewhere. I believe it was a direct consequence of the supervisor's sense that, as Dr. Caruth tells us, “Unlike the analyst, the supervisor must have concern and empathy for the patient in the supervisee's office as well as for the supervisee in the supervisor's own office, a [double] responsibility that has both ethical and legal implications.” True, but supervisors must be careful to clarify for themselves how that responsibility should be exercised.
