Listening, Learning, and Development in Psychoanalytic Supervision: A Self Psychology Perspective

In this article, I would like to consider the matter of development in psychoanalytic supervision and how supervisees learn and grow across supervisory space. Although long considered fundamentally developmental in nature, the process of psychoanalytic supervision has not been specifically examined and explicated from a developmental learning perspective. I propose here some ways in which a developmental learning view could complement a psychoanalytic view of supervision. Blending therapist/supervisee developmental conceptualization (e.g., Ronnestad & Skovholt, 2013; Skovholt, 2012; Stoltenberg & McNeill, 2010) with a self psychology focus on the therapist self, I take up 3 issues: (a) a vision of learning in supervision; (b) the evolving sense of practice self during the supervisory process; and (c) how subject-centered and other-centered listening perspectives contribute developmentally to the supervision experience. My perspective is informed by and grounded in the foundational assumption that: Psychoanalytic supervision is a developmentally anchored educational experience in which the supervisory relationship serves as the crucible of supervisee change.