Supervision. Lessons from psychoanalysis

Psychoanalytic supervision is more than teaching some practical knowledge i n patient management. Beyond education it serves to form and to train psych oanalytic identity. This identity should not be limited to localty towards teachers or to an attachment to certain theories, but should encourage devi ance. For "application" of any theory in psychoanalytic practice can't have any other meaning than staying on the illuminated fields of knowledge and thereby missing the unconscious. Not the rejection of any theory is meant h ere, but a theory is needed which is open to surprises: a theory without th e claim to omniscience. In this sense recommendations are given for psychoa nalytic supervision.