Making the Best of What Has Been Done to You and of What You Yourself Have Done: Commentary on Papers by Joan Sarnat and Emanuel Berman

Abstract

In this commentary on the supervisory experiences presented by Joan Sarnat and Emanuel Berman, the author mainly focuses on the following issues: the fear of facing the negative feelings and the consequences of this fear in the patient, in the candidate, and in the supervisor; on the intrapsychic/interpsychic dynamics of role-reversal in transference–countertransference; on the tendency to use either intellectual and “jargon” interpretations or metaphors without before asking ourselves whether if the patient can comprehend them or whether, on the contrary, these kinds of communications leave the patient even more disorientated and confused. Further considerations are suggested on the fruitfulness of applying “a long wave perspective” in reading the analytical material and on which an ideal “good enough” work of supervision could be intended.