Visions of transference and counter-transference: The use of drawings in the clinical supervision of psychoanalytic practitioners

Author(s): Weissman, M. A.

Journal/Book: Amer J Art Ther. 1999; 37: Vermont Coll of Norwich Univ, Montpelier, VT 05602, USA. Amer J Art Therapy. 74-83.

Abstract: In contemporary psychoanalytic training and practice the-re is a gap, reframed in this article as a ''potential space'' (Winnicott, 1971). This gap, which artists would call a negative space, resides in the context of the substantial influence that Melanie Klein and her followers of the British School have had upon shifting psychoanalytic thinking and practice concerning personality development and psychopathology (Bott-Spillius, 1990; Meltzer, 1978). The Kleinian influence is informed by the exploration of primitive mental states from birth to age three. The gap in psychoanalytic training has been the failure to use art techniques as an important avenue into this preverbal, primitive realm, except, perhaps, Winnicott's ''squiggle game'' (Winnicott, 1958). The training of verbal clinicians within the tradition of Klein, Bion, Winnicott, et al., focuses attention on non-verbal, transient emotional and bodily experiences, and the fleeting thoughts, images, or reveries which come to the therapist's mind during a session as important sources of information for understanding the client's primitive mental experiences. Art making itself, however, has not been considered as an informative source. With this ironic gap in psychoanalytic training in mind, I was moved to use an art technique in my clinical supervision of a doctoral psychology intern. After working together for a number months, when I thought a sufficient working alliance was established, I asked if he would be willing to try an experiment which I thought might facilitate his learning. He agreed.

Note: Article Ireland MS, 301 Ratto Rd, Alameda,CA 94502 USA

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