Letter to the Editor

On 10 August 2014 at the XXIV Nordic Psychoanalytic Congress in Oslo, the final Imre Szecsödy Foundation Prize for outstanding work in the field of Psychoanalytic Research and Training, was awarded to a Danish Candidate, Martin Morsing, for his doctoral dissertation: Fravær og selvskade ― en klinisk undersøgelse [“Absence and self-harm ― a clinical study”]. This does motivate me into giving a short historical description on the work of the Foundation.

In 1970 (probably influenced by the student revolts in the late 1960’s), a National Conference was arranged by the Swedish Psychiatric Association, with an invitation also to psychologists, social workers, nurses, teachers, priests. Members of this Conference agreed to and formulated a Manifesto, laying down ideas about and a plan for the training of those who are engaged in the care-giving professions. This first Manifesto was changed considerably and a more final and official proposition for training in psychotherapy was formulated in 1975: a training that should be provided in three steps. The third step was the training of supervisors. As a preparation, in 1974, a training of supervisors was suggested, planned and carried through under the auspices of the University of Stockholm (Jansson, 1975). It was run as an experiment in which both trainers and trainees were well-experienced psychotherapists and psychoanalysts. I was one of the four trainers/supervisors. It had to provide training in parallel at the same time as creating ideas about the training itself. Towards the end of this experiment, a provisional taxonomy for future training of supervisors was formulated. At present, systematic training for supervisors is provided at different institutions in Sweden as well as around the world.

Being for many years engaged in the training and supervision of psychotherapists, psychoanalysts and also in the training of supervisors, I became more and more interested in how learning takes place in supervision. This interest st