You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The setting or frame is that part of the analytic process that changes more slowly than the other parts, as a result of a series of agreements between analyst and analysand. It fulfils six different but interrelated functions: It is (a) a relatively stable frame of reference for perception of the more rapidly moving phenomena; (b) a frame or boundary that defines an area within which all events carry a particular meaning; (c) a containing and holding relation for the patient's emotional life; (d) a co-creation, and therefore a part of the analytic relationship; (e) a legal situation that regulates the relationship; and (f) a definition of the limits—spatial, temporal, relational, and legal—that isolate a subgroup (a pair) from the larger community, thus making it the depository of certain collective fantasies that involve mating, conceiving, and giving birth to a product. This defines psychoanalysis as a special context, distinct from ordinary social life and ruled by the values of compassion, care, rationality, mutual recognition, negotiation, fairness, truthfulness, and a firmly shared intention of discovering, verbalizing, and discussing truth. The transmission of this way of thinking and acting to candidates in training should be done from the very beginning.