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Paula Heimann used to point out to student psychoanalysts that it is useful to bear in mind, from the very beginning, that one of the aims of an analysis is for the patient to reach the point of not needing the analyst. In many ways the same is true of psychoanalytic supervision.1 I have therefore chosen a title for this paper which reflects that aim, which is the ultimate autonomy of the supervisee.
My examples are from the supervision of student psychotherapists, but I believe that the principles I shall describe are also relevant to the supervision of analysts and analytical psychotherapists, qualified or not, and so are many of the issues illustrated.