Interpreting transference in the supervision of psychoanalytic psychotherapy

Supervisors of analytic psychotherapy have long wrestled with the question of whether interpretation has a legitimate role in dealing with supervisee countertransference and the transferences of the supervisory experience, it self: Currently, the majority view relies an didactic methods to deal with these transferences and avoids interpretation as incompatible with, even da ngerous to, the supervisory task. This paper takes issue with this view and uses a clinical example to illustrate the impact and irreplaceable value o f direct interpretation in supervision. It demonstrates that interpretation of a resistance in the supervisee can fundamentally and beneficially affec t the therapeutic relationship, the supervisory process, and can have unant icipated diagnostic significance. It also demonstrates that, when applied w ith the same appropriateness and tact taken for granted in psychotherapy co ncerns that supervisory interpretation will be traumatizing or counterprodu ctive are unwarranted.