The triadic intersubjective matrix in supervision: the use of disclosure to work through painful affects

The use of the psychoanalyst's subjective reactions as a tool to better understand his/her patient has been a central feature of clinical thinking in recent decades. While there has been much discussion and debate about the analyst's use of countertransference in individual psychoanalysis, including possible disclosure of his/her feelings to the patient, the literature on supervision has been slower to consider such matters. The attention to parallel processes in supervision has been helpful in appreciating the impact of affects arising in either the analyst/patient or the supervisor/analyst dyads upon the analytic treatment and its supervision. This contribution addresses the ways in which overlapping aspects of the personalities of the supervisor, analyst and patient may intersect and create resistances in the treatment. That three-way intersection, described here as the triadic intersubjective matrix, is considered inevitable in all supervised treatments. A clinical example from the termination phase of a supervised analysis of an adolescent is offered to illustrate these points. Finally, the question of self-disclosure as an aspect of the supervisory alliance is also discussed.