THIS PAPER, LIKE THE OTHERS IN THIS ISSUE, is inspired by the boundary dilemma faced by Patrick Casement when he was asked to meet the request of his traumatized patient to have her hand held at a crucial time in their analytic work. This question of touch, of physical contact, and its place in the analytic situation is complex and is interconnected with larger issues pertaining to boundaries in general. One's response to this issue depends in no small part on the theoretical model the analyst plays. Our paper is written from a developmental systems self psychology perspective (Shane, Shane, and Gales, 1997) in which all questions of boundary, including that of touch, are conceptualized contextually, emerging from within a particular psychoanalytic dyad and shaped by it.