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The legacy of a great teacher is found in the enhanced capabilities of her students. In her long career as borough supervisor
at the Bronx Office of the Jewish Board of Guardians and later as a revered teacher at the Smith College School of Social Work, Yonata Feldman left her special imprint on hundreds of clinicians.
For fifty years she was a significant force in social work theory and practice. She infused her colleagues, supervisors and students with her steadfast belief in social workers as clinicians whose understanding of the unconscious, and of transference and resistance, equipped them for therapeutic goals beyond those of environmental change and supportive therapy. Her profound influence upon the field is lovingly attested to in this volume. Included are revealing personal reminiscences by Hyman Spotnitz and Martha Gabriel which illuminate aspects of Yonata Feldman's character and her essential humanistic core, several of her key papers on supervision and training and transcripts of her teaching seminars with students from the Smith College Continuing Education Program in Social Work. The papers on supervision and training reveal with luminescent clarity her inherent respect and concern for the emotional and professional development of trainees. In “The Teaching Aspect of Casework Supervision,” she recommends study by the supervisor of the worker's pattern in order to comprehend “the full range of his creative, intuitive performance” and to help him learn successful handling within the framework of his particular personality (p. 88). In another paper, “Ego Involvement in Casework Training,” she examines the supervisor's role in helping the supervisee learn to tolerate the powerful feeling induced by clients. She advocates that the supervisor facilitate the development of emotional insulation in the worker by emotional demonstrations of her own ability to face feelings—to talk about them and still maintain control. This paper also illustrates the skillful