A Patient's Transference to the Analyst's Supervisor: Effect of the Setting on the Analytic Process

Abstract

A case is presented in which the patient's transference to the analyst's supervisor became evident just prior to the switch from clinic to private patient status. The patient experienced the supervisor as a restraining father figure who protected her from acting on her erotic wishes toward the analyst. Analysis of this led to the recall of previously repressed memories of sexual wishes toward her brother, and the sense of protection from these wishes that she had gotten from the presence of her father. The literature on transference involving the supervisory constellation and the training setting is reviewed, and the concepts of split and institutional transference are examined. Factors inhibiting the analysis of patient' fantasies about the analyst's status as trainee, including the presence of the supervisor and the institute, are discussed.