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Lest the casual reader of book titles gets the wrong impression, this is a sophisticated manual that is not intended to supplant the tripartite model of psychoanalytic training. No, it is not a guide for bypassing the essentials of the supervisory relationship. In fact, the book derives its inspiration from exactly this component of the classical model. While typically seen as less fundamental than one's own analysis, less rigorously delineated than the required coursework, and with a bit more flexibility to ideally meet the given candidate's needs, the role of supervision in training has certainly been recognized and extensively written about for decades (Jacobs, David, and Meyer 1995; Lane 1990; Langs 1979; McWilliams 2021; Wallerstein 1981). However, the delineation of self-supervision as a separate and specific form of self-analysis is less well studied, perhaps oftentimes because it is assumed to be a logical extension of the latter.
This unique volume has a specific audience and goal in mind, as the authors state in their concise introduction. It is an application of psychoanalysis and is intended for psychology graduate students. The authors realize that adequate supervision may not always be readily available, and assert that self-supervision can be taught as a skill. This is a guidebook with clinical vignettes, strategies and study questions to address. The necessary, underlying competency that they stress throughout the text is the acquisition of “reflexivity” (Singer, Peterson, and Madigson 1992), which we analysts know is the “observing ego.” With this perspective in mind, one can appreciate the importance of this contribution as “spreading the word” in an effective and accurate way.