Internet Discussion Forum Summary

‘Some reflections on empathy and reciprocity in the use of countertransference between supervisor and supervisee’ by James Astor

(JAP, 45, 3)

There were two principal postings about James Astor's paper on supervision. The first was from Elizabeth Gee. She appreciated the mix of theoretical and clinical material he gave as this allowed the dynamics of mutual exchange between supervisee and supervisor to be explored in detail. Gee took up Astor's description of the supervision process as a ‘… coming together of two minds as a form of parenting’ and suggested that this comes from the presence within the supervisor of a creative internal coniunctio which then acts as an essential counter-balance to a potential tendency to work from a position of theory - or indeed to give into the supervisee's demand for theoretical rather than empathic knowledge of their work. She addressed the necessity for ‘not knowing’ between supervisor and supervisee which can then allow for a more fruitful supervisory process as it allows both to make use of reflection about partial unconscious identifications generated within the countertransference.

Another danger to the creativity of the work comes from persecutory anxieties within the supervisee, particularly around the possibility that the supervisor is going to be a judge rather than a helpful colleague. Gee highlighted some of the other sources of difficulty between the supervisor and supervisee: the difficulty of each learning to make use of the other's language (particularly if there is a great split between their styles); the presence within the supervisor of an awareness of a rather critical representation of his or her peer group's concern with standards, which can then adversely affect the supervisor's development of their own authentic style of supervision. Another difficulty could be the supervisor's own transference relationship to the supervisee and Gee indicates the necessity for supervision to be ‘task-orientated’ in her comment t