IJSP Number 3, 2021

38 shaping process that we all experience are powerful desires and vague but difficult-to-ignore longings that are to be fulfilled either we wish it or not. Furthermore, our desires are not simply some searching for good feelings and avoiding bad feelings, but they occur with mostly unconscious incentives as driving forces to fulfil them. Along with that emerged the ability to reason upon desires, but as William B. Irvine observes: “Some of our evolutionary ancestors, having gained the ability to desire and the reasoning skills this ability required, went on to become fully rational. The important thing to realize, though, is that they developed this improved reasoning ability not so they could transcend their built-in system of incentives but so they could more effectively earn its rewards and avoid its punishments, and thereby survive and reproduce. Indeed, in modern humans, our intellect typically functions as an adjunct to our emotions.” [1] As we know from the existentialists and their philosophical essays, the human condition – the essence of what it means to be human – is like an open box, open to the rest of the world and unfulfilled for itself and in itself. If we examine the inherent potential of this, we could easily affirm: ‘Wow! What a wonderful thing the human condition is: what limitless possibilities and what extraordinary potential are inherent to every one of us!’ If, on the other hand, we examine that box itself, as the (pre) condition for all the human possibilities, we also observe the intrinsic limits and propensity for failures due to the predominance of ‘un-rational’ mental procedures; as a result, our sensation of wonder fades rapidly as if it was never there. Such philosophical considerations, anthropological perspectives or ethical accents are necessary to enhance and to deepen our view of what the general human factor is. If considered solely from a psychological or a psychotherapeutic direction it would probably be a too modest, too narrow, and one-dimensional perspective. 2. SUPERVISION IN PSYCHOTHERAPY Therefore, let us consider the supervision in psychotherapy. What is supervision? According to dictionaries, supervision is about overseeing and guiding the activity of others. Derived from Latin, the term means to oversee – supervidere – or to look over what somebody else does. As we already know, trust is good, but control is (always) better! Ultimately, only one question remains: who is looking over the shoulder of the supervisor herself/himself? Should we imagine just another supervisor? Would we not, in such a case, have a very rapid mis en abime – as the French saying – or the ‘turtles that go all the way down’ – as an example of the ‘infinite regress? They certainly stand on a giant turtle! As we already know, the