Preliminary Report on an Experimental Project in Supervision in Clinical Psychology (A. Psychotherapy)

Abstract

RUDOLF EKSTEIN and HELEN SARGENT Menninger Center of the Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, and Winter Veteran's Administration Hospital, Topeka. In order to provide a learning experience in psychotherapy for clinical psychology trainees, the experimental project to be described was set up to develop methods of supervision applicable in a hospital setting in cooperation with the VA and the affiliated university. The authors will attempt to describe the supervisory philosophy against the background of a specific training structure and with the help of a case demonstration. Supervision is no recent human invention. The oldest human documents bear testimony to the fact that the function of supervision has been known to man since the beginnings of civilization. The story of Joseph in Genesis seems ample biblical proof that then as now supervisors were needed but that the job was not a desired one since quite frequently it invited the wrath of the administrator and the supervisee. Present day administrators may have different reasons to get rid of supervisors than did Potiphar, but all these reasons then and now can be reduced to lack of supervisory skill in the handling of interpersonal problems, just as Potiphar's wife did testify. The overseer of Potiphar's household, Joseph, was demoted to be the overseer of all the prisoners entrusted to him by the new administrator, the keeper of the prison. He oversaw their work in the quarry and we must assume that he evaluated their progress. Joseph was charged with the resposibility of ministering unto the Pharaoh's chief butler and chief baker. So skillful must Joseph have been in their supervision that he evaluated them correctly. We might assume that his interpretation of their dreams indicated his awareness of the baker's inability to reform, and the butler's genuine desire for redemption. The chief butler was restored to butlership again while the chief baker--having failed the test of the evaluation-was hanged, as Joseph had so authoritatively indicated in his dream interpretation to them. Joseph's supervisory skill was rewarded and he was made Pharaoh's chief administrator. Thus it appears that the desire for professional advancement existed way back in the ancient past, and is not merely a function of our modern, competitive and individualistic Western society. The crude methods of supervision known to the ancient Pyramid