Lacanian perspectives on psychoanalytic supervision.

Abstract

This article presents a Lacanian perspective on supervision within the context of the history of psychoanalytic supervision. Lacan emphasizes the importance of the personal analysis and how supervision, at times, can function as a resistance against the same. Eventually, Lacan concluded that an analyst is authorized by what he called the analyst's synthome and a few other analysts. What allows an analyst to effectively operate with the transference of the analysand is that, because of his/her own analysis, he/she knows that he/she does not know and, therefore, is generally not deceived by the transference to the "subject who is supposed to know". An analysis ends by virtue of the desire of the analyst not to remain in the position of the beloved subject who is supposed to know, and by virtue of the analysand's own "unknown-knowing." The analyst is an ex-analysand that has transformed the jouissance of his/her symptom into an Other jouissance of the synthome.Clinical supervision, as a training requirement for psychoanalysts, was formalized with the development of the International Psychoanalytic Association and the creation of the Berlin Institute. At first, the practice of supervision, just like the practice of analysis, was nonstandard. Supervision was intertwined with the teacher-student relationship and the collegial or peer professional relationships. To Freud, Breuer was a teacher and supervisor, whereas Fliess was Freud's supervisor, confidant, and colleague. In turn, Freud was a teacher and supervisor to both Steckel and Jung (Safouan, Julien, & Hoffman, 1995;Safouan, 2000).Max Eitington, who opened the first psychoanalytic clinic in Vienna, did a nonstandard didactic analysis with Freud walking through the streets of Vienna. Eitington conceived of a psychoanalytic clinic as having three functions: therapeutic, formative, and research. The initial function of supervision was not only to deliver adequate professional services to the public but also to preserve the integrity and internal coherence of psychoanalysis. The International Psychoanalytic Conference of 1925 sought to prevent the premature amalgamation and synthesis of psychoanalysis with other fields, research

Teaching on diversity: The mutual influence of students and instructors.

“…Moncayo extended Lacan’s (1979) concept of unknown knowing to supervision, as the supervisor can hear that which the supervisee has not yet recognized what he or she already knows unconsciously in his or her work with a client. Within this perspective, the supervisor is in a position to help the supervisee find his or her own style, “beyond imitation, identification, and compliance and beyond disavowal, defiance, and identification with the opposite” (Moncayo, 2006, p. 529).…”

Supervision from a Lacanian Perspective Considered Closely: A Qualitative Study

“…The problem with power imbalances (Forshaw, Sabin‐Farrell & Schröder, 2019), deriving from evaluative roles, influencing the therapeutic relationship seemed to be absent in our study. This shouldn’t surprise us, as the evaluative aspect of supervision seems generally absent in Lacanian institutes, as Lacan strongly opposed this (Moncayo, 2006).…”

“…The supervisee can take up these remarks and work with them in analysis. As Moncayo (2006) states, when supervision and analysis take place concurrently, a problem that arises in supervision may also facilitate movements or breakthroughs in the personal analysis of the supervisee. As such, Lacanian supervision agrees with Grinberg (1997), who states that supervision is not and must not be therapy.…”

“…In this research, articles that discuss supervision from a Lacanian psychoanalytic perspective are scarce, and most articles on this subject don't mention the Lacanian perspective at all (see Ellis et al, 1996;Zaslavsky, Nunes & Eizirik, 2005;Ogden, 2005;Rubinstein, 2007). In a broad-scale, century-spanning psychoanalytic supervision literature review, Watkins (2019) found only two academic articles discussing supervision inspired by a Lacanian orientation, both being theoretical discussions (Dulsster &Vanheule, 2019;Moncayo, 2006). As Lacanian psychoanalysis inspires more and more clinical psychotherapists across the globe, it is however important to gain better insight into the process of its supervision on a day-to-day basis.…”