Confidentiality in Supervision – Ellen A. Sparer

What happens when the analytic setting—built on confidentiality and silence—meets the institutional demands of psychoanalytic training? Can the frame of supervision truly preserve the integrity of the analytic pact, or does it inevitably put it at risk?
In this episode, Ellen Sparer explores a central paradox in psychoanalytic formation: the tension between the confidentiality of analytic work and the structural requirements of supervision. Drawing from her experience at the Paris Psychoanalytic Institute, she asks whether supervision risks undermining the very foundation of the analytic situation—what Freud, in An Outline of Psychoanalysis, described as a pact in which “the patient’s sick ego promises us the most complete candour…” while “we, on the other hand, assure him of the strictest discretion.”
Through reflections on André Green, José Bleger, and Freud’s concept of disavowal, Sparer examines what she calls a “noisy contradiction”—a situation in which the analyst-in-formation becomes both observer and observed, and where the silence essential to the analytic space is disturbed by institutional structure. She invites us to consider the Institute’s role as a symbolic third—present, structuring, yet potentially unsettling—and to ask whether we can live with this paradox without disavowing its presence.
Rather than resolving the contradiction, this episode engages with it directly, as Ellen Sparer offers a nuanced and courageous inquiry into a space of ethical tension, institutional inheritance, and potential transformation at the core of analytic formation.
 
Ellen Sparer is a training analyst at the Paris Psychoanalytic Society and former Director of the Paris Institute of Psychoanalysis, a role she held until March 2025. She has served as co-chair of the Applicant Societies Committee of the IPA, where she contributed to the evaluation of emerging psychoanalytic groups seeking IPA recognition. She is also an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, where she’s part of the Education Section, and a scientific advisor for the Jahrbuch of Psychoanalysis. From 2009 to 2019, she was on the editorial board of the Revue Française de Psychanalyse. Most recently, she was elected to the IPA Board as a European representative.
Her scientific work and publications focus on the unconscious ego, supervision, training, the frame, and ethics. She has also written on countertransference phenomena, including the function of the analyst’s dream in the treatment process.
 
This Podcast Series, published by the International Psychoanalytical Association, is part of the activities of the IPA Communication Committee and is produced by the IPA Podcast Editorial Team.
Co-Editors: Gaetano Pellegrini and Nicolle Zapien.
Editing and Post-Production: Massimiliano Guerrieri.

Moccia/Barnà/Sarno - Panel On The Psychoanalytic Method Today.

In this episode we present a Panel that took place recently in the Centro di Psicoanalisi Romano of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society. The participants are Giuseppe Moccia, chair of the Panel, Cono Aldo Barnà and Lucio Sarno. The theme that is developed concerns the variations of the psychoanalytic method in relation both to the new pathologies and to the extensions of the analytic treatment to new contexts, such as the family, couples and groups. The changes caused by the new conditions due to the Covid 19 pandemic are also considered.
Giuseppe  Moccia is a Medical Doctor, Psychiatrist, and Training Analyst of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society and the International Psychoanalytic Association. He has long been a supervisor at the psychiatric services of Roma and Ancona, President and Scientific Secretary of the Centro di Psicoanalisi Romano and Coordinator of the Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience Committee of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society. He has written numerous articles in Italian and international journals on the issues of patients with severe pathology, the intersubjective approach as well as the relationship between psychoanalysis and neuroscience.This text is read by Diego Francisco Andrade.
link to his paper https://docs.google.com/file/d/11laEgx6cHmboy-ZekwlwzP-I7TiScPxm/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=msword
 
Cono Aldo Barnà is a physician, psychiatrist and Training Analyst for the Italian Psychoanalytical Society and the International Psychoanalytic Association. He has worked in psychiatric centers of the Italian Health System and has been supervisor of many socio-health teams in various Italian cities. He was President of the Centro di Psicoanalisi Romano and Vice President of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society. He is co-author of the "Unconscious" entry in the Inter-Regional Encyclopedic Dictionary of the International Psychoanalytic Association and books on psychoanalysis. Since the 1970’s he has produced many articles on psychiatry and psychoanalysis.This text is read by Diego Francisco Andrade.
link to his paper https://docs.google.com/file/d/1nWE7gfvq8bqRb_ToY_yyZ4DUkvzRI2eZ/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=msword
 
Lucio Sarno is Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy. He was the Chief of the Service of Clinical and Health Psychology at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. He now directs the Counseling Service and the Centre for the Promotion of Psychological Wellbeing and Health Protection at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan. He is a Training Analyst of Italian Psychoanalytical Society (SPI) , a Full Member of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), and a “qualified expert” in the analysis of children and adolescents. He has held numerous institutional positions.He founded and was President of the Italian Institute of Group Psychoanalysis.This text is read by Adam Muri-Rosenthal.
link to his paper https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Am6djcCgdsG3HBsgdTWdm-J1gZ-ezWuq/view?usp=drivesdk
 
Key Takeaways:[0:34] Giuseppe Moccia[6:38] Cono Aldo Barnà[42:34] Lucio Sarno
This episode is available also in Italian
Music:Chopin Etudes, Op. 25Żołnowski Kwartet Japoński II -  Complete Performance. Maciej Żołnowski.