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Psychoanalytic supervision goes far beyond being a formal and predetermined procedure designed to develop the supervisees' skills and to award them recognition as accomplished therapists. It is also more than a private and singular relational event occurring between supervisor and supervisee. Supervision is a structured and boundaried professional activity, in which intrapsychic, relational, and learning processes can and should be carefully studied, drawing on the accumulating knowledge of analytic reasoning. The study of supervisory processes parallel to therapeutic processes draws on supervisor's and supervisee's introspection and examines their motivations, communications, and reflections, the development of their personal-professional relationships, as well as their supervisory settings. It is anticipated that expanding the knowledge of supervisory processes through methodical introspective reflection will promote patients’ well-being and supervisees’ development as analytic therapists.
The contributors to this special issue on supervision (Yerushalmi, 2019a) discuss highly relevant supervisory issues through meticulous examination of supervisors’ and supervisees’ communications and responses, offering valuable theoretical and practical conclusions. These conclusions appear to be not definitive, but provisional suggestions for the reader's consideration, as one stage in a developing and continuous open discussion about structural elements of analytic supervision.