Pathways to Self-Knowledge: Private Reflections and Mutual Supervision and Other Shared Communications

As part of a national survey of analysts in the American Psychoanalytic Association, analysts responding to the questionnaire reported the different ways in which they continued their self-explorations stimulated by their work with patients. Twenty-six of these analysts were interviewed about this process. Their responses clustered in four groupings: (1) analysts who revealed their self-reflections in writing; (2) analysts who used their self-discoveries in teaching; (3) analysts who communicated their self-discoveries to only a few people, most often a spouse and one or two close friend-colleagues; and (4) analysts who participated in peer groups or had several friends andlor friend-colleagues with whom they were mutually self-disclosing. Subsequently, ten analysts were interviewed specifically about mutual supervision and self and other exploration in this process. This paper presents data about the frequency and methods of these reporting analysts' self-enquiry and their ideas about privacy and self-disclosure in relation to their self-reflections. The role of transference in self-revelation to peers is discussed in respect of its regressive and non-regressive aspects.