Skip to main content
Log in

AGAINST RECORDING SESSIONS FOR SUPERVISION

  • Article
  • Published:
The American Journal of Psychoanalysis Aims and scope

Abstract

The American Psychological Association’s (APA) 2014 injunction that supervisors must listen to recorded sessions of their supervisees’ work is based on a rich and thorough body of research, and yet it entails a narrative of psychotherapy as a discipline of Science. If psychotherapy is understood as an endeavor also of the Humanities, recording sessions may be anathematic to supervision and training. Developing ideas from Greenberg’s (2015) theory of “controlling fiction,” the writer presents a narrative of psychotherapy in which it is not wise to review recorded sessions in supervision.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Adorno, T. (1951). Minima moralia: Reflections from damaged life. London: Verso. 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • American Psychological Association. (2014). Guidelines for clinical supervision in health service psychology. http://apa.org/about/policy/guidelines-supervision.pdf.

  • Barnett, J. E. (2009, December). Ask the ethicist: The role of recording in psychotherapy (Web article). https://www.societyforpsychotherapy.org/ask-the-ethicist-the-role-of-recording-in-psychotherapy.

  • De La Parra, G. & Del Rio, M. (2005). Can psychoanalysis and systematic research work productively together? International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 86(1), 151–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, G. (1986). Cinema 1: The movement image (trans: (H. Tomlinson and B. Habberjam, Trans.). London: Continuum. 2001.

  • Feaver, W. (1992). Lucian Freud and William Feaver: Conversation. In Lucian Freud. New York: Rizzoli International. 2011.

  • Foucault, M. (1975). Discipline and punish: The birth of a prison. (A. Sheridan, Trans.). New York: Vintage. 1995.

  • Freud, S. (1917). Introductory lectures on psycho-analysis. Part 3. Standard Edition Vol. 16, (pp. 241–463). London: Hogarth.

  • Greenberg, J. (2015). Therapeutic action and the analyst’s responsibility. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 63(1), 15–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grosz, S. (2013). The examined life. How we lose and find ourselves. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.

  • Haggerty, G. & Hilsenroth, M. J. (2011). The use of video in psychotherapy supervision. British Journal of Psychotherapy, 27(2), 193–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kafka, F. (1909). Description of a struggle. In N. N. Glatzer (Ed.), The complete short stories of Franz Kafka New York: Schocken Books. 1971.

  • Kafka, F. (1926). The castle (M. Harman, trans.). New York: Schocken Books, 1998.

  • Kernberg, O. (2019). Reflections on supervision. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 79(3), 265–283.

  • Lacan, J. (1975). Encore: The seminar, Book X. 1972–1973. J. A. Miller (Ed.). Paris: Seuil.

  • Mitchell, S. A. & Aron, L. (1999). Relational psychoanalysis: The emergence of a tradition. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.

  • Pascal, B. (1669). Mind on fire: A faith for the skeptical and indifferent. A. Houston (Ed.). Vancouver, CA: Regent College Publishing. 1989.

  • Peddler, J. (1986). Reflections on the theory and practice of supervision. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, 2(1), 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quinodoz, J.-M. (1994). Clinical facts or psychoanalytic clinical facts. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 75, 963–976.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, B. M., Banon, E., Csank, P. R., & Frank, D. E. (2004). Analysts involved in research: Preliminary observations and hopeful signs. Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis, 12(2), 195–216.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roiphe, J. (1995). The conceptualisation and communication of clinical facts: A consideration of the 75th anniversary edition. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 76, 1179–1190.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowell, M. (1973). Jean Dubuffet: An art on the margins of culture. In Jean Dubuffet: A retrospective. New York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

  • Sass, L. A. (1992). Madness and modernism: Insanity in the light of modern art, literature, and thought Boston: Harvard University Press. 1994.

  • Shelley, P. B. (1840). A defense of poetry Boston: Ginn & Company. 1891.

  • Symington, N. (1996). The making of a psychotherapist. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.

  • Town, J. M., Diener, M. J., Abbass, A., Leichsenring, F., Driessen, E., & Rabung, S. (2012). A meta-analysis of psychodynamic psychotherapy outcomes: Evaluating the effects of research-specific procedures. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 49(3), 276–290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tuckett, D. (1994). The conceptualisation and communication of clinical facts in psychoanalysis—Foreword. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 75, 865–870.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Videotaping therapy (Web article). Retrieved August 15, 2019, from https://www.dpfortherapists.com/videotaping-therapy.

  • Virgil. (29 bce). The Georgics, II: 458, p. 67. 2009.

  • Zicht, S. R. (2013). On the experiential and psychotherapeutic dimensions of psychoanalytic supervision: An interpersonal perspective. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 73(1), 8–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Žižek, S. (2006). The parallax view. Boston: MIT Press.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jonathan J. Detrixhe.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Detrixhe, J.J. AGAINST RECORDING SESSIONS FOR SUPERVISION. Am J Psychoanal 81, 511–526 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-021-09330-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-021-09330-x

Keywords

Navigation