The Ubiquity of Countertransferential and Other Personal Responses in Progression Deliberations

Countertransferential and other types of personal responses to candidates are inevitable among psychoanalytic educators, whether they be supervisors, progression advisors, the progression committee as a whole, or course instructors. Nonetheless many educators remain unaware of these phenomena – despite the robust literature on this subject in supervisors – perhaps because we do not like to think of ourselves as having potentially deleterious personal reactions to younger colleagues with whom we have significant and highly valued relationships. This paper emphasizes the role of such phenomena in progression advisors' deliberations about candidates' development, as well as in the committee as a whole – a subject not addressed in the literature. Especially when unrecognized such responses can compromise the checks and balances function of the progression committee and significantly diminish rich and effective dialogue with candidates about their development. Examples of the potential impact and more or less effective mitigation of such responses are presented. Ensuring that faculty members and candidates alike are familiar with the inevitability of these reactions, their multiple sources and manifestations in those involved in the work of progression enhances the possibility of developing strategies to address these reactions and reduce their effect.