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The modern psychoanalytic method of supervision which I propose to describe here is a method of preceptorial tutoring that is systematically conducted to implement the following three goals:
The first goal is to enhance the student's understanding of the patient's psychodynamics. The patient may be difficult to understand. Any intuitive understanding the student may have is usually deeply repressed, so that he feels far removed from the patient; the narcissistic patient, in particular, impresses the student venturing to treat him as relatively alien to his own experience. But the formation of a productive treatment relationship with such a patient requires a basic understanding of the illness.
The second goal is to help the student tolerate the feelings that are induced in him in the treatment relationship with a schizophrenic patient and to use these feelings to facilitate the progress of the case. The acceptance and use of such feelings are also very difficult. The student analyst prefers to repress them rather than become aware of them, because these feelings appear to be connected with tendencies in the student himself. Hence, many analysts embarking on treatment have feelings as well as ideas about the patient that they would prefer not to know about.
The third goal of this method of supervision is to help the therapist communicate appropriately with the patient. Appropriate communication entails much more than the standard technique of