Actualizar con auto-unión

Oracle no admite JOIN cláusula en UPDATE declaraciones.

Usa esto:

MERGE
INTO    contactassociations ca1
USING   contactassociations ca2
ON      (
        ca1.contactid = ca2.contactid
        AND ca1.entitytable = 'EMPLOYER'
        AND  ca2.entitytable = 'CLIENT'
        )
WHEN MATCHED THEN
UPDATE
SET     parentid = ca2.id