A Working Group of Candidates as a Supplement to Psychoanalytic Education in Norway*

After completing their obligatory courses in 1978, six candidates wanted to continue after the technical seminars in order to follow the analytic cases further. One of our teachers, a training analyst, joined the group.

Our meetings were held in the building where our society has its meetings. Our monthly sessions were regularly attended by five of the candidates and the analyst. In each session of two hours duration, one of the candidates gave an account of an ongoing analysis and then a debate followed. Theoretical topics were discussed and scientific papers distributed. Two of the candidates have since become members of the society and the remaining three are determined to present their papers before long.

Group “supervision” turned out to be a new way of learning, expanding the knowledge gained in individual supervision. Viewpoints that had not been commented upon or seen only in individual discussions, were soon presented in the group. At first it was a frustrating experience, but after a while the group was seen as a special phenomenon with its own specific laws. We then relaxed!

The group processes can be characterized as a “creative new way of thinking”. Without being conscious of it, our associations made a synthesis of experience and theory. the opening up into our own inner worlds and those of the others in the group, revealed a flow of thoughts which gave room for deep reflection and a better understanding of the analytic process. Even “trivial” thoughts and associations could illuminate transference, countertransference aspects and pathology. Thus the relaxed atmosphere in the group gave new dimensions to the relation between analyst and analysand.

The security of the group also gave us renewed self-confidence to face working with the analytic process and even to face the analytic milieu – an important effect for shaping our identities as analysts.