Die vakante Sitzung in Psychoanalyse und Supervision

In psychoanalysis and also in supervision the analyst’s and supervisor’s handling of the question of the vacant or missed session and a possible related fee are evident in word and action. In analysis the analyst and the analysand exchange views. In supervision the debate runs on two levels: the supervisand and the supervisor talk about the therapy processes that happen between the supervisand and the patient including the handling of vacant sessions and related fees. Above that there is a real and actual exchange on the question of vacant sessions in the supervisory relationship. Often the analyst’s, supervisor’s and supervisand’s own conscious views about unacceptability and unreasonable hardship define which so-called exceptions and goodwill arrangements they believe they are obliged to offer with respect to their supervisands and analysands without these having their say. This article illustrates how a (unconscious) “to-have-one’s-say” of analysands in treatment and of supervisands in supervision can be initiated and how this can lead to a deeper understanding of the emotions and conflicts of the analysand and the supervisand as well as the dynamics of transference and countertransference in analysis and supervision. The important aim of the article is not the search for an ideal and universally applicable rule for vacant sessions but rather the analysis, by means of the context-related method, of the themes, beliefs and conflicts emerging in these special relationships, which in turn allows individual insights and suitable ways to approach the topic of the handling of vacant sessions and related fees.