Boundaries in Supervision

Abstract

The concept of boundaries belongs to the development of the ego. Hartmann (1964) states that the development of the ego comes from the increasing conscious perception of the internal and external worlds. Similarly, Jung (1913, para. 757), in describing the concept of individuation, talks of the process of differentiation. It is this capacity to differentiate between perceptions that enables us to establish boundaries. The phenomenon of differentiation is dynamic which is why we refer to it as a ‘process’. However, as perceptions and boundaries become established, the ego slowly develops a sense of constancy, and the defensiveness of this identity is likely to depend on whether it can adapt to new perceptions, enabling existing boundaries to be challenged. In the first part of this chapter I shall look at some of the more obvious boundary problems in supervision. I shall then explore how, for those who have a good sense of their boundaries, it is both inevitable and creative to lose the sense of boundaries in order to bring about further differentiations and the establishment of less defensive boundaries.Wharton (1985) thinks that the development of the ego and the capacity to make boundaries is dependent on the child’s good enough relationship with its mother. Similarly, the relationship between analyst and patient and also between supervisor and supervisee can provide the containment necessary for the boundaries to be challenged by the psyche using what Jung (1916, para. 519) described as the process of unconscious identity.