The phenomenon of “disappearances” in the process of supervision in a permanent professional multimodal supervision group

Abstract

The article discusses the phenomenon of “disappearance” in the supervision process. The authors show that the phenomenon of “disappearance” is a result of the peculiarities of the flow of group dynamics at the initial stage of the group’s development. The manifestation of all the phenomena of the initial stage of group dynamics is characteristic for a supervision multimodal group. The condition provoking the development of the phenomenon of “disappearance” is the activation of deep layers of the unconscious, typical for situations of group therapy and supervision. The motivational basis of this phenomenon is the avoidance of the narcissistic trauma of the specialist exposing the case to supervision. The article offers examples of how this phenomenon manifests, and discusses its variations. The article draws from the theoretical traditions in psychology such as psychoanalysis, group analysis and professional multimodal model of supervision.

Keywords

• disappearance phenomenon
• early group dynamics
• supervision
• multimodal supervision
• interpretation of dynamic processes