Observation, understanding and interpretation: The story of a supervision

Abstract

This paper describes the supervision of the early stages of the psychoanalytic treatment of a 4-year-old boy. The supervision took an unusual form, as most of it was conducted in writing, using fax transmission. The supervisor's role in relation to the treatment dyad is linked to pre-Oedipal and Oedipal preoccupations with the parental couple, which are vividly expressed in the child's play. The therapist's link to the supervisor enabled her to preside over the child's discovery of three-dimensionality and growth in his thinking space and the creative use of his imagination.

Key Words:

• Supervision
• supervisory setting
• restoration of internal parental figures
• tri-dimensionality
• infantile anxiety