Special Section: Supervision Between Rituals: Creativity and the Development of the Reflective Function

Abstract

This article describes the supervision experience of a group-analytic therapy for psychotic patients carried out from 2000 to 2003 at the Mental Health Center of Carpi (Modena, Italy). The experience of supervision is here presented in its main aspects and as a tool to promote the so-called `reflective function' of the `couple supervisor and supervisee'. The `reflective function' is described in its meaning of com-prehension (from the Latin word `com-prehendere': to acquire knowledge and also to `hold into affection'), referring to an ongoing process of mutual exchange and understanding between supervisor and supervisee. Supervision is here considered as a transgenerational transmission, where both supervisor and supervisee participate in an exchange that takes place between transmission of culture and innovations. According to our hypothesis, the reflective function that develops within the supervision process mirrors the reflective function of the therapeutic work and in this context research can play a stimulating role. In this article we consider the supervision process and describe an attempt to combine classical supervision with evaluation work.