The teaching of psychotherapy is at best laborious and inefficient. It is usually conducted by one-to-one supervisory sessions which perforce lag behind whatever transpires between the patient and the studenttherapist or resident. The successful supervisory process must avoid potential complications posed by this temporal lag, as well as subjective distortions, a double communication problem, and the possibly divergent goals and motives of no less than 3 different individuals: the patient, the resident, and the supervisor. Anything that can be learned regarding this ponderous and unique tutorial system may contribute to forging more effective teaching methods. Although occasional references have been made in the literature to the changing of psychotherapy supervisors, with but one exception 1 the suggested changes were not related to the condition of the patient. The 4 patients who will be presented in this paper were inpatients on the psychiatric services of the