Parallel Process and Projective Identification in Psychoanalytic Supervision

Abstract

In the present paper I explore the notion of the parallel process, a controversial concept in psychoanalytic supervision. I suggest that the parallel process is essentially the operation of the defensive process of projective identification, which in some quarters is similarly viewed with skepticism and/or is mistakenly seen as primarily a malignant defense operating exclusively in severe character pathology (Kernberg, 1975; Mendelsohn, 2009). Further, I present several vignettes of psychoanalytic supervision where a series of parallel processes occurred, and I suggest that these parallel enactments are the result of the projective identifications which stimulated them. I agree with critical writers who say that simply suggesting the presence of a parallel process in the supervision adds no new information to the supervision, but I show how an exploration of the parallel enactments, which includes (1) exploring the patient-therapist dyadic dynamics, (2) a narrowly focused exploration of the dynamics of the therapist/presenter, and (3) and an exploration of the dynamics of the therapist-supervisor dyad, can enrich the treatment, as well as the supervision. Finally I suggest that while the projective identification that occurs in the supervisory dyad does not always lead to a parallel process, every parallel process is the result of projective identification(s). I further suggest that while every parallel process does not lead to an enactment via projective identification, enactments can only occur via the parallel process instigated by projective identification.