LACANIAN PSYCHOANALYTIC SUPERVISION: IS IT POSSIBLE TO DEFINE A FRAMEWORK?

Date

2026-8-31

Author

Kartal, Fatoş

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Lacanian psychoanalytic supervision occupies a central place in analytic formation, yet it has not been defined as a standardized method or a clearly delimited clinical procedure. Grounded in social constructionism, this qualitative study examined how supervisors in Türkiye conceptualize and practice Lacanian supervision and whether a framework can be identified. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 supervisors across clinical and institutional contexts; 14 interviews were analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Five themes were generated: naming in a double discourse: “control” and “supervision”; the clinical dynamic worked through in supervision: listening, blind spots, and "linguistic testimony"; the centrality of transference in the supervision process; the unstructured form of supervision: its subjective nature; and the topological functioning of Lacanian supervision in transforming the analyst. The findings indicate that Lacanian supervision cannot be reduced to a fixed model, standardized technique, or instructional transmission of knowledge, but neither is it arbitrary. It is organized around a recurring clinical logic in which the supervisee’s position in relation to the case, knowledge, desire, transference, and psychoanalytic practice is questioned. Rather than consolidating the position of the Subject Supposed to Know by supplying definitive answers, the supervisor opens a space in which the supervisee’s clinical position can be reworked. The analyst–analysand–supervisor relation emerged as a permeable, topological structure in which these positions affect one another. Rather than proposing a standardized framework, this study articulates the ethical-clinical coordinates of Lacanian supervision and offers a conceptual language for understanding its clinical and formative dimensions.

Subject Keywords

Lacanian Psychoanalytic Supervision, Control, Psychoanalytic Formation, Transference, Reflexive Thematic Analysis

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/120646

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis