My Experience as A Psychoanalytic Supervisor ( Part III )

Let's begin this post with the books I used in teaching and supervising my psychoanalytically oriented students. For an introduction to psychoanalytic structural theory ( Ego, Id, and Superego), I requested they read Sigmund Freud ( 1912, 1913, 1923, 1926.) I further added for a theory introduction, Brenner (1973.) For theory and technique in both insight and supportive therapy, I assigned DeWald (1973.) For those from a pastoral psychotherapy background, I asked them to read Wise (1983.) From these classics we added the following books to their reading assignments: Luborsky, 1984. Viorst, 1986. Wallerstein, 1993. Gabbard, 1994, 2004. Rockland, 1989. McWilliams,1992, 2004. Goldstein, 2001. ...........These texts introduced the trainees to the major analytic theories of ego psychology, object relations, self psychology, and relational analysis as well as the psychotherapeutic technigues of insight and supportive therapy. Every other week in didactic session we would discuss these readings and how they applied to their patients. The weeks we were not discussing their readings, we would explore their cases in traditional analytic therapy supervision. In supervision sessions the student trainees would present their cases utilizing process notes and videos of their sessions. I had been trained in process note presentations in my own supervision, and I also presented with audio sessions, but video presentations were new to me. The various schools my supervisees attended required reviewing video sessions. There are strengths and weaknesses in all of these ways of presenting case material. I will not go into those in this post. In a future post I will write in more detail about the three phases of analytic psychotherapy supervision-- beginning, middle, and ending.