The parallelism phenomenon in psychoanalysis and supervision: its reconsideration as a triadic system.

In psychoanalytic superivision, supervisees manifest toward their supervisors many psychic patterns which parallel processes that are prominent in their interactions with their patients. The reverse influence is also observed: analyst and patient re-enact events of the supervisory situation. An expanded explanation for parallelism is offered which indicates how the structural and dynamic similarities of analysis and supervision link patient, analyst, and supervisor in a complex, multidirectional network that guarantees the emergence of this phenomenon.