This paper is a critical review of the literature on supervision of psychiatric residents. Topics discussed are divided into four main groups: 1, the kind of data most suitable for supervision; 2, supervision as didactic or therapeutic experience; 3, the nature of the supervisory process; and 4, countertransference problems in supervision. The views of Tarachow, Ekstein, and Wallerstein are contrasted and a resolution of the contrasts is suggested based on the work of Fleming and Benedek. The latter group uses supervision 'as a hierarchy of supervisory tasks in which the supervisor fuses his competence as teacher and therapist in a special applied skill'.