Table Of ContentROBERT LANGS
DOING SUPERVISION
and
BEING SUPERVISED
Foreword by
Theodore Dorpat
KARNAC BOOKS
DOING SUPERVISION
AND BEING SUPERVISED
DOING SUPERVISION
AND B E I NG S U P E R V I S ED
Robert Langs
Foreword by
Theodore Dorpat
London
KARNAC BOOKS
First published in 1994 by
H. Karnac (Books) Ltd,
118Finchley Road,
London NW3 5HT
Copyright © 1994 by Robert Langs
The rights of Robert Langs to be identified as author of this work
have been asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of
the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
in any form, by any process or technique,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Langs, Robert
Doing Supervision and Being Supervised
I. Title
616.8914
ISBN: 978 1 85575 060 9
Printed in Great Britain by BPC Wheatons Ltd, Exeter
CONTENTS
FOREWORD by Theodore Dorpat vii
Introduction 1
CHAPTER ONE
Issues in supervising psychotherapy 7
CHAPTER TWO
A clinical foundation for supervisory practices 15
CHAPTER THREE
Models of supervision and unconscious validation 39
CHAPTER FOUR
Frames and systems: contexts for supervision 59
CHAPTER FIVE
The fixed frame of supervision 71
CHAPTER six
Privacy and confidentiality 97
v
Vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER SEVEN
Relative neutrality and anonymity
CHAPTER EIGHT
The process of supervision
CHAPTER NINE
The supervisor: basic issues
CHAPTER TEN
The supervisor: basic precepts of supervision
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The supervisee: responsibilities and entitlements
CHAPTER TWELVE
Supervisory crises
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Taking issue
with the standard models of supervision
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Self-processing supervision
REFERENCES
INDEX
FOREWORD
Theodore Dorpat
D
r. Robert Langs has presented a stunning and original
work on supervision of psychoanalytic psychotherapy
which, in my opinion, should become a standard
textbook and a classic in its field. Not only is it the most
comprehensive book thus far written on supervision, it also
includes important topics that have been neglected or over
looked in the writings of others.
In what follows, my purpose is to discuss the significance of
five major contributions the author has made in this book
towards both the theory and the practice of supervision.
First, to the best of my knowledge, this is the only book
on supervision based on contemporary knowledge of the mind
and psychopathology as summarized in the early sections of
this volume. The traditional models used for psychotherapy,
psychoanalysis, and supervision have a restricted and narrow
definition of the unconscious, limited to unconscious instinc
tual sexual and aggressive drives and defences against them.
There is much, much more in the unconscious than Freud or
many other analysts who followed after him knew about. We
are now aware that higher-level cognitive functions, meaning
vii
Viii FOREWORD
analysis, perception, judgement, decision making, and a host
of other complex mental functions can be carried out uncon
sciously. Any system of psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, or
supervision should be based, as this book is based, on a
contemporary view of mental functioning. Langs compares the
communicative model of supervision with the traditional or
classical model of supervision, and he correctly faults the
traditional theory for its failure to comprehend the deeply
unconscious nature of the therapeutic interaction.
A second important contribution of this volume is its knowl
edge about and emphasis on the interactional perspective in
psychoanalytic treatment and in supervision. As Langs states,
"Supervisory work is always cast in the framework of an active,
ever-present, spiralling conscious and unconscious interaction
between patient and therapist.. . the deep unconscious system
is always centred on this interplay and its implications and
ramifications". One of the major defects in the traditional model
of supervision as well as in classical clinical theories about
psychotherapy and psychoanalysis is that they are, for the most
part, limited to the intrapsychic point of view. In contrast, the
author includes both intrapsychic and interactional perspec
tives. This book emphasizes the necessity for the supervisor
to monitor constantly the nature of the interaction between
therapist and patient. In the past, many psychoanalytically
oriented therapists and analysts have had a collective blind
spot for interactional factors in psychoanalytic psychotherapy
and psychoanalysis, and it is only in recent years, with the
advent of the various object relations theories, self psychology,
and the communicative approach, that some clinicians have
begun to overcome this blind spot. The importance of inter
actional factors is also shown in Langs's emphasis on the
second unconscious system of the emotion-processing mind as
being focused on the individual's immediate interactions. That
is to say, the patient's unconscious mind is constantly monitor
ing, analysing, and representing the nature of the individual's
interactions with the analyst or therapist, and derivatives of
this unconscious, highly intelligent process are manifested in
the patient's communications.
A third and unique contribution Langs makes in this
path-breaking book is his scholarly presentation about the
FOREWORD iX
supervisory frame, conceptualized as a system of ground
rules, conditions, and boundaries necessary for effective
supervision to take place. Today there exists an almost
complete ignorance on the part of most supervisors about
supervision-frame issues. Although many clinicians attempt to
follow rules of privacy and confidentiality in psychoanalytic
therapy, they seldom adhere to these rules regarding their
conduct of supervision. Langs points out the importance of
frame management and the supervisor's major responsibility
for continually monitoring both the supervisor-supervisee
frame and the therapist-patient frame. Because almost all of
the training of psychotherapists and psychoanalysts occurs
under deviant-frame conditions, it is extremely important that
the dynamic importance of the frame be taught to all who do
supervision. Securing the frame, as Langs indicates, requires
understanding, strong motivation, and effort. Frame-manage
ment work is not a consequence of one's natural inclinations
and takes much effort and vigilance. The author discusses the
fixed frame of supervision, including the set time, set fee, set
hours, and a set place, a private office, for ensuring privacy.
Langs says, "Given that approaches to supervision universally
tend to be even more undisciplined than those towards therapy,
we are dealing with aspects of the supervisory experience that
are in need of major reconsideration and change".
A secure supervision frame should include strict confiden
tiality and privacy. Perhaps the most common set of modifica
tions of the supervisory frame has to do with privacy and
confidentiality, and such frame deviations often occur in train
ing programs. A particularly egregious example of the violation
of the rule of supervisory privacy and confidentiality occurs
under the aegis of The American Psychoanalytic Association.
At periodic intervals, all of the institutes of the above organiza
tion are inspected by a site-visit team for the purposes of
accreditation. As a part of this inspection, two site-visit mem
bers sit in with the institute supervisors while they supervise
their candidates* work with psychoanalytic patients. As this has
happened to me first as a candidate and later as a supervisor, I
can bear witness to the disruptive effects it has first of all on
supervisor-supervisee relations and secondarily often also on
supervisee-analysand interactions.
