The Place of the Written Assignment in Psychoanalytic Education

An integral aspect of “The Psychoanalyst At Work”, the major theme of the 33rd IPA Congress, is the analyst's search for improving his teaching of psychoanalysis. In our ongoing efforts as teaching analysts, we have found that periodic written assignments enhance the learning alliance between candidate and supervisor and facilitate the learning and teaching of psychoanalysis. In this paper we present an example of how the supervisee and supervisor situation works.

Psychoanalytic supervisors have frequently encountered recurring problems in learning and teaching psychoanalytic technique (Ekstein & Wallerstein, 1972; Fleming & Benedek, 1966). There problems range from the candidate's lack of knowledge (of theory, technique, psychopathology), lack of experience, unawareness of the effect of countertransference on the analytic process, etc. The supervisor is also repeatedly faced with the problem of helping the candidate to integrate concepts with clinical observations, trying to free learning blocks through appropriate applications of theoretical knowledge to the analytic process. The nature of the supervisory situation is such that all these problems are dealt with in a spontaneous manner, in the context of meeting the candidate's needs.

The progress of the candidate is assessed on the basis of performance in seminars, during the supervisory hour, and on the developmental changes attributed to his or her personal analysis (Fleming & Benedek).

Ekstein and Wallerstein focus on the candidate's learning problem and the self-awareness that is enhanced by treating the patient. Many paralles