The area of faith is distinguishable from operations which primarily emphasize ego mastery and introjection-internalization processes. Faith is implicit in Winnicott's transitional experiencing and carried forward in object usage. In Bion faith is linked with openness to O or the (unknowable) ultimate reality of a session and is the operative principle of the psychoanalytic attitude. This paper emphasizes the play of faith in Winnicott's object usage and Bion's O. A certain faith is also required to tolerate the movement of meaning in Lacan's Symbolic order.

Faith as a fundamental dimension is in tension with the defensive use of mastery and introjective-projective representational networks. In its various forms this complex tension is part of the structure of human life and constitutes the arena in which faith may evolve.