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Int. J. Psycho-Anal. (1966) 48, 511

PSYCHO-ANALYSIS OF THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC FRAMEl

JOSE BLEGER, BUENOS AIRES

Winnicott (1956) defines "setting" as "the importance of maintaining and protecting the
summation of all the details of management." fragments or elements which might have
I suggest, for reasons that will become clearer remained and which can sometimes only be
further on, that we should apply the term achieved by hospitalization. Yet I do not want
"psycho-analytic situation" to the totality of to consider now the problem of "disruption
phenomena included in the therapeutic relation- of" or " attack on " the frame. I want to study
ship between the analyst and the patient. This what is involved in the maintenance of an
situation comprises phenomena which constitute ideally normal frame. The problem is similar to
a process that is studied, analysed, and inter- what physicists call an ideal experiment, that is
preted; but it also includes a frame, that is to to say a problem which does not occur fully and
say, a "non-process", in the sense that it is precisely in the way it is being described or
made up of constants within whose bounds the stated, but which is of great theoretical and
process takes place. 2 practical use. This is perhaps what Rodrigue
The analytic situation may be thus studied had in mind when he once referred to the patient
from the point of view of the methodology it whose history nobody has written and nobody
stands for, its frame corresponding to the will ever be able to write.
constants of a phenomenon, a method or The way I have stated the problem seems to
technique, and the process to the set of variables. imply that such study is impossible, since ideal
Methodological considerations will, however, be analysis does not exist, and I agree with this
left out and they have only been mentioned here opinion. The fact is that at times permanently,
to make it clear that a process can only be and at other times sporadically, the frame
examined when the same constants (frame) are changes from the mere background of a Gestalt
being kept up. Thus, we include within the into a figure, that is to say, a process. But even
psycho-analytic frame the role of the analyst, the in these cases, it is not the same thing as the
set of space (atmosphere) and time factors, and process of the analytic situation itself because,
part of the technique (including problems con- whenever" flaws" occur in the frame, we stilI
cerning the fixing and keeping of times, fees, tend to maintain it or restore it with our
interruptions, etc.), The frame refers to a interpretation; this is quite different from our
strategy rather than to a technique. One part of attitude in the analysis of the process itself. In
the frame includes "the psycho-analytic con- this sense, I am interested in examining the
tract" which "is an agreement between two psycho-analytic meaning of the frame when it is
people into which enter two formal elements of not a problem, in the" ideal " analysis (or at the
mutual exchange: time and money" (Liberman, moments or stages when it is ideal). Thus, I am
1961). interested in the psycho-analysis of the frame
I am here concerned with the psycho-analysis when it is maintained and not when it is broken,
of the psycho-analytic frame, and there is a when it remains a set of constants and not when
great deal in the literature about the need for it has turned into variables. The problem I want
keeping it up and about the breaks and dis- to look into concerns those analyses in which the
tortions caused by the patient in the course of frame is not a problem-precisely to show that
any psycho-analysis (varying in intensity and it is a problem-a problem, however, which has
features from exaggerated obsessive fulfilment not been defined or hitherto recognized.
to repression, acting out, or psychotic dis-
integration). My work in the psycho-analysis of A relationship which lasts for years, in which
psychotic cases has clearly revealed to me the a set of norms and attitudes is kept up, is nothing
1 Paper read at the Second Argentine Psychoanalytic 2 Herewernight compare this terminology with that used
Congress, Buenos Aires, June 1966. by Liberman (1962) and Rodrigue (1966) respectively.
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512 JOSE BLEGER

less than a true definition of institution. The object comes later; the first step is the perception
frame is then an institution within whose of a certain " incompleteness". What exists in
bounds certain phenomena take place which we the individual's perception is that which ex-
call behaviour. I was led to this study partly by perience has taught him might be missing. On
a series of seminars on Institutional Psychology the other hand, steady or motionless relation-
and as a result of my experience in this field ships (the non-absences) are those which
(though at present limited). What became organize and preserve the non-ego, and serve as
evident to me was that each institution is a a basis for the building up of the ego according
portion of the individual's personality; and it is to frustrating and gratifying experiences. The
of such importance that identity is always, fact that the non-ego is not perceived does not
wholly or partially, institutional, in the sense mean it does not exist psychologically for the
that at least one part of the identity always organization of personality. The knowledge of
shapes itself by belonging to a group, institution, something is only apparent in the absence of
ideology, party, etc. Fenichel (1945) wrote: that something, until it is incorporated as an
"Unquestionably the individual structures internal object. But what we do not perceive is
created by institutions help conserve these also present. And precisely because of this, that
institutions." But besides this interaction be- " ghost world " is also present in the frame even
tween individuals and institutions, institutions when this has not been broken.
always work in varying degrees as the limits of
the body image and as the basic centre of I want to digress again, hoping to provide
identity. more elements for the present study. Until
The frame is maintained and tends to be recently, we were comfortably working in the
maintained (actively, by the psycho-analyst) as field of science, language, logic, etc., without
invariable; and while it exists as such it seems to realizing that all of these phenomena or
be non-existent or it does not count, just as we behaviours (I am interested in all of them in so
become aware of institutions or relationships far as they are behaviours, that is to say, human
only when they are missing, are blocked, or phenomena) take place within a context of
have ceased to exist. (I do not know who it was assumptions which we ignored or thought non-
who said about love and children that we only existent or invariable; but we know now that
know they exist when they cry.) But, what is the communication contains a meta-communication,
meaning of the frame when it is maintained, science a meta-science, theory a meta-theory,
when" it does not cry"? It is, in all instances, language a meta-language, logics a meta-logics,
the problem of symbiosis, which is "dumb" etc., etc. If the "meta-" varies the contents
and only reveals itself when it breaks or is on vary radically. 3 Thus, the frame is constant,
the verge of rupture. This is what happens, too, and is therefore decisive in the phenomena of
with the body image whose study started with the process of behaviour. In other words, the
pathology which first proved its existence. In frame is a meta-behaviour, and the phenomena
the same way as we speak of the "ghost we are going to distinguish as behaviour depend
member", we must accept that institutions and on it. It is what remains implicit, but on which
the frame always make up a " ghost world", the explicit depends.
that of the most primitive and undifferentiated The meta-behaviour works as a " bulwark",
organization. What is always there is never as M. and W. Baranger have called it, a phase
noticed unless it is missing; we might apply to in which the analysand tries not to risk avoiding
the frame the term used by Wallon for what he the basic rule. In the meta-behaviour, I am
called "ultra-things", that is to say, all that interested in analysing the cases in which the
which in experience appears as vague, undefined, basic rule is fulfilled, and I am concerned
without conception or knowledge of itself. precisely with examining that fulfilment. I agree
What makes up the ego are not only the steady . with these authors in regarding the analytic
relationships with objects and institutions but the relationship as a symbiotic relationship; but in
ulterior frustrations and gratifications with the cases in which the frame is being respected,
them. There is no awareness of what is always the problem lies in the fact that the frame itself
present. Awareness of the missing or gratifying is the receiver of the symbiosis and that the latter
3 This variation in the" meta-" or variation of the In psychotherapy, each technique has its assumptions
fixed or constant assumptions is the origin of non- (its frame) and therefore, its own "contents" or
Euclidean geometry and Boolean algebra (Lieber, 1960). processes.
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PSYCHO-ANALYSIS OF THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC FRAME 513

is not present in the analytic process itself. its being otherwise. He was demanding a
Symbiosis with the mother (immobility of the repetition of what had been lived, of what for
non-ego) enables the child to develop his ego. him had "always been so ", a demand or
The frame has a similar function: it acts as feature he had managed to keep through his
support, as mainstay, but, so far, we have been life by restricting or limiting his ego in social
able to perceive it only when it changes or breaks. relationships and by constantly controlling
The most powerful, endurable, and at the same relationships himself, demanding a strong
time least apparent, "bulwark" is, then, the dependence from his objects.
one that lies on the frame. I want to stress in this example how the" non-
repetition", because the frame was respected,
I want to illustrate the description I have brought to light the steadiest and most per-
offered of the frame with the example of a manent element of his personality, his " ghost
patient Mr A., with a phobic character and an world". The delusional transference (Little) or
intense dependence disguised under the form of the psychotic part of his personality was a non-
reactive independence. For a long time he ego that constituted the groundwork of his ego
wavered between hesitation, desire and fear of and his identity. It was only with the "un-
buying a flat in a purchase that was never fulfilment" of his " ghost world" that he was
accomplished. At a certain point, he came to able to see that my frame was different from his,
know by mere chance that I had, some time that even before the unfulfilment, his "ghost
before, bought a flat that was still being built, world" already existed. I must emphasize, how-
and this was the starting point of a period of ever, that the maintenance of the frame was
anxiety and acting out. what led to the analysis of the psychotic part of
One day he told me about what he had learnt his personality. The important question is not
and I interpreted his reaction: the way he said how many of these phenomena are due to
it contained reproach at my not informing him frustration or the clash with reality (the frame),
of my purchase, knowing it was a fundamental but how much of this area does not appear and
problem of his. He tried to ignore or forget the is therefore never likely to be analysed. I am
incident by presenting strong resistance every able not to give an answer to this question, but
time I insistently related this fact to his acting only to delineate the problem. It is similar to
out, till strong feelings of hatred, envy, frus- what happens with the character feature that
tration, coupled with verbal attacks, began to must be turned into a symptom in order to be
appear, and were followed by a feeling of analysed, that is to say, it must stop being ego-
detachment and hopelessness. As we advanced syntonic. Should not whatever is done in the
further in the analysis of these situations, the analysis of character be done with the frame?
" background" of his childhood experience The problem is different and more difficult since
gradually began to emerge from the narration of the frame is not ego-syntonic on the one hand,
different recollections. At home, his parents had and on the other hand is the groundwork on
done nothing without informing or consulting which the ego and the identity of the individual
him about it; he knew all the details of the are built up; and it is strongly separated off
development of the family life. After the from the analytic process, from the ego that
emergence of these memories and my inter- shapes the neurotic transference.
pretation of them against great resistance, he Even if we assume that, in the case mentioned
began accusing me of having broken our above, this material would have emerged in one
connexion, and he said that he would not be way or another because it was there, the problem
able to trust me. Fantasies of suicide appeared persists in reference to the psycho-analytic
as well as derangement, frequent confusion and meaning of the frame.
hypochondriacal symptoms. 4
For the patient, something had broken, Summing up, one might say that the frame
something which was so and had to be as it (thus defined as a problem) is the most perfect
had always been; and he could not conceive of repetition compulsion 5 and that actually there

• As Little (1958) describes it in patients whose non-ego of the frame includes the body and if the frame
transference is delusional, body associations of very early breaks, the limits of the ego made up by the non-ego have
experiences began to appear in my patient. When he felt to be recovered through hypochondriacal symptoms.
immobilized he associated to having been wrapped up 5 This repetition compulsion is not only a way of
as a baby in a band that kept him motionless. The remembering but a way of life on the requirement to live.
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514 JOSE BLEGER

are two frames, one which is suggested and kept take place within the institution, and, in the case
up by the analyst, and consciously accepted by of the psycho-analytic situation, within what we
the patient, and the other, that of the" ghost have described as the process-what "is in
world", on which the patient projects. 6 The motion" against what is not: the frame.
latter is the most perfect repetition compulsion Reider (1953) describes different types of trans-
since it is the most complete, the least known, ference to the institution instead of the therapist
and the least noticeable one. Rodrigue (1966) and psycho-analysis as an institution seems to be
talks about a " pending transference" and the a means of recovering the lost omnipotence of
" difficulty arises because we are speaking about sharing in the prestige of a great institution. I
a phenomenon which, if it existed in its pure believe that what is important here is to con-
form, would have to be dumb by definition." sider the psycho-analytic situation as an
It has always seemed surprising and exciting institution in itself, especially the frame.
to me, in the analysis of psychotic cases, to note The development of the ego, in analysis, in the
the coexistence of a total denial of the analyst family, or in any institution, depends on the
with exaggerated sensitivity to the infringement immobility of the non-ego. This denomination
of any detail of the" habitual", the frame, and of non-ego makes us think about it as something
how the patient might become confused or non-existent, but which actually exists to the
violent, for example, because of a few minutes' extent that it is the " meta-ego" on which the
difference in starting or finishing the session. very possibility of formation and maintenance
Now I understand it better in that what becomes of the ego depends. Hence we might say that
disorganized is his "meta-ego ", which to a identity depends upon the manner in which the
great extent, is all he has got. J think it is non-ego is kept up or handled. If the meta-
jumping to conclusions to talk all the time about behaviour varies, the whole ego undergoes
a patient's "attack" on the frame when he changes in probably equivalent degrees as
does not adhere to it. He brings what he has regards its quantity and its quality. Garcia
got and it is not always an " attack" but his Reinoso (1956) has said that just as it is true-
own organization, even though disordered. as Freud had pointed out-that the ego is
In psychotic transference, affection is not corporal, so is the non-ego. We might add
transferred but" a total situation, the whole of something else: that the non-ego is a different
a development" (Lagache); it would be better ego, having different features, and I suggest
to say, the whole of a "non-development". (Bleger, 1967) calling it a syncretic ego. This
For Melanie Klein, transference repeats the also implies that there is not only one sense of
primitive object relationships, but I think that reality and a lack of it: there are different
what is still most primitive (the non-differen- structures of the ego and sense of reality.
tiation) repeats itself in the frame. The ambiguity The non-ego is the background or the frame
of the" as if" of the analytic situation studied of the organized ego; the "background" and
by W. and M. Baranger (1961-62) does not cover " figure" of a unique Gestalt. Between the ego
" all the aspects of the analytic field" as they and the non-ego, or between the neurotic and
express it, but only the process. The frame does psychotic part of the personality, there is no
not accept ambiguity, either on the part of the dissociation but a cleavage, as I have described
patient or on the part of the analyst's technique. it in a previous paper.
Each frame is, and does not admit ambiguity. Miss N was a very rigid and limited patient
Similarly, I believe that the phenomenon of who always lived with her parents in hotels in
participation (Levy-Bruhl) or of syncretism different countries; the only thing she always
admitted by these authors for the analytic carried with her was a small picture. The un-
situation, only applies to the frame. satisfactory relationship with her parents and
the constant moving had turned this picture into
Jaques (1955) says that social institutions are her" frame ", what gave her the" non-change"
unconsciously used as a defence against psychotic for her identity.
anxiety. I believe them to be the depository of The frame is the most primitive part of the
the psychotic part of the personality, i.e. the personality, it is the fusion ego-body-world, on
undifferentiated and non-dissolved portion of whose immobility depend the formation, exis-
the primitive symbiotic links. Psychotic anxieties tence, and differentiation (of the ego, the object,

• Wender (1966) has said that there are two patients and two analysts, to which I now add: two frames.
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PSYCHO-ANALYSIS OF THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC FRAME 515

the body image, the body, the mind, etc., etc.). disruption of his omnipotent organization, the
Patients with "acting-in" tendencies or psy- appearance of a "breach" which became the
chotic patients also bring " their own frame", way to get in "against" his omnipotence (the
and the institution of their primitive symbiotic steady and safe world of his childhood). The
relationship; yet not only they, but all patients fulfilment of the frame was the depository of
bring it too. Hence we can better recognize the his omnipotent magic world, his childish
catastrophic situation which to a variable degree dependence, his psychotic transference. His
is always created by the analyst's breaking the most profound fantasy was that analysis would
frame, e.g, holidays, changes of time, etc., strengthen that omnipotence and would give
because in these breakings a "crevice" is him back his" ghost world". "To live" in
opened into which enters a reality that appears the past was the basic organization of his exis-
catastrophic to the patient; "his" frame, his tence.
" ghost world" remains without depository and The following material comes from a session
it becomes evident that his frame is not the just after his parents were seriously injured in an
psycho-analytic frame, as happened with Mr A. accident. During the previous session he paid
I now want to give an example of a " crevice" me part of his debt, and he began the present
that the patient maintained till he felt the need session by telling me that he had brought me
to recover his omnipotence, "his" frame. so much money and still owed me so much.
Mr Z, the only son of a family who in his He felt the debt "as a breach, as something
childhood was wealthy and socially influential missing". After a pause, he went on: " Yester-
and united, lived in a huge, luxurious mansion day I had sexual intercourse with my wife and
with his parents and grandparents, for whom he at the beginning I was impotent and that
was the centre of attention. For political frightened me". (He had been impotent at the
reasons, a lot of their possessions were ex- beginning of his marriage.) I interpreted that
propriated, and this brought about a great as he was now living a difficult situation because
economic decline. The whole family tried hard of his parents' accident, he wanted to go back
for a while to live like rich people, concealing to the security he enjoyed in his childhood, to his
their disaster and poverty, but his parents finally parents and grandparents within him, and the
moved into a small apartment and accepted a relationship with his wife, with me, and with the
job. (In the meantime his grandparents had present reality made him impotent to accomplish
died.) When the family faced and accepted the that. He had a need to close the breach by
change, he continued living up to appearances. paying me the whole of the debt, so that the
He withdrew from his parents to live on his money might disappear between us, so that I,
profession as an architect and he covered up and everything that made him suffer now, might
his great insecurity and economic instability so also disappear. He answered that the day before
well that everybody thought him rich. He lived he had thought that he in fact only needed his
and encouraged his fantasy that " nothing had wife not to be alone, she was a mere addition in
happened ", preserving in this way the safe and his life. I interpreted that he also wished me to
idealized world of his childhood, his "ghost satisfy his reality-needs so that they might
world". The impression he gave me in the disappear and he might thus go back to the
course of treatment was that of a " well-to-do" security of his childhood, and to his fantasy of
person, belonging to the social and economic reunion with his grandparents, father and
upper class, who, without the showing-off of a mother, just as had happened in his early years.
" parvenu", maintained an air of security, After a silence, he said that when he heard the
dignity, and superiority, of being over and word fantasy he found it strange that I should
beyond the" miseries" and " pettiness" of life, talk of fantasies, and was afraid of going mad.
including money. I told him that he wanted me to give him back
The frame was well kept, the patient paying all the security of his childhood which he tried
regularly and punctually. As the cleavage in to preserve within himself so as to cope with the
his personality was being more deeply analysed, difficult situation and that, on the other hand,
as well as his acting in two worlds, he began to he felt that I, and reality with its needs and
owe me money, to be unpunctual, and to speak- sufferings, got in through the breach which his
with great difficulty-about his lack of money, debt had created between us. He finished the
a fact which made him feel very" humiliated". session by talking about a transvestist; and I
The breaking of the frame meant here a certain interpreted that he felt like a transvestist: at
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516 JOSE BLEGER

times like a rich and only son, at times like his " factic ego"; neither do I think this necessary.
father, at times like his mother, at times like his The "pact" or the negative therapeutic
grandfather, and in each one of them both poor reaction represents a perfect fixation of the
and rich. patient's non-ego in the frame and even its non-
recognition and acceptance by the psycho-
Any variation in the frame brings the non- analyst; moreover, we might say that the negative
ego to a crisis, "contradicts" the fusion, therapeutic reaction is a real perversion of the
" challenges" the ego, and compels reintro- transference-countertransference relationship.
jection, re-elaboration of the ego, or stirs the The" therapeutic alliance" is, on the contrary,
defences to immobilize or reproject the psychotic an alliance with the healthiest part of the patient
part of the personality. Mr Z could accept the (Greenacre, 1959); and this is true of the process
analysis of " his" frame till he had defensively but not of the frame. In the latter, the alliance is
to get it back; and what is important is that his established with the psychotic (or symbiotic)
" ghost world" appears and is questioned with part of the patient's personality (whether with
" flaws" to the frame (his debt) and that the the corresponding part of the psycho-analyst's
recovery of his "ghost world" was linked to personality I do not know yet)."
the fulfilment of my frame precisely to ignore me Winnicott (1947) says:
or destroy me.
The phenomenon of reactivation of symptoms For the neurotic, the couch and warmth and
at the end of a psycho-analytic treatment, which comfort can be symbolical of the mother's love; for
the psychotic it would be more true to say that these
has often been described, is due, too, to a things are the analyst's physical expression of love.
mobilization and regression of the ego because The couch is the analyst's lap or womb, and the
of a mobilization of the "meta-ego". The warmth is the live warmth of the analyst's body.
background of the Gestalt becomes a figure. 7 And so on.
The frame, in this way, may be considered as
an "addiction" which, if not systematically As to the frame, this is always the most
analysed, may become a stabilized organization, regressive, psychotic part of the patient (for
the foundation of the organization of the every type of patient). The frame is a permanent
personality, and the individual gets an ego presence, like the parents for the child. Without
" adjusted" and modelled upon the institutions them, there is no development of the ego, but to
of which he is part. It is the basis, I believe, of keep the frame beyond necessity, or to avoid any
what Alvarez de Toledo, Grinberg, and Langer change in the relationship with the frame or with
(1966) have called the "analytic character", the parents, there may be even a paralysis of
which the existentialists call a "factic" existence, development. Rodrigue, in a book on transference
and which we might recognize as a "factic (I 966), compares the psycho-analytic process with
ego ".8 the process of evolution.
This" factic ego" is an " ego of belonging"; It has been emphasized that the child's ego
it is made up and sustained by the admission of organizes itself according to the mobility of the
the subject to an institution (which may be the medium that creates and provides his needs.
therapeutic relationship, the psycho-analytical The rest of the medium which does not generate
society, a study group, or any other institution); needs, is not distinguished and remains as a
there is no " internalized ego" to give internal background in the structure of personality, and as
stability to the subject. yet this has not been given proper considerations.
Let us say, in other words, that his whole In every analysis, even one with an ideally
personality is made up of " characters ", that is kept frame, the frame must become an object of
to say, of roles, or-to put it another way-that analysis. I do not mean that this is not occurring
his whole personality is a facade, I am now in practice, but I want to stress the meaning or
describing the" extreme case" but quantitative significance of what is being done or remains
variation must be taken into account because undone, and its importance. The de-sym-
there is no way to abolish completely this biotization of the analyst-patient relationship is

7 It must be this fact which has led some authors ego" and the "syncretic ego", the "corporal ego"
(Christoffel, 1952) to the breaking of the frame as a and the "internalized ego" elsewhere (Bleger, 1967).
technique (giving up the couch and having the interview • I do not believe that this psychotic split transference
face to face) a point of view I do not share. which is placed on the frame is the consequence of
S I have dealt more intensively with the "factic repression of infantile amnesia.
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PSYCHO-ANALYSIS OF THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC FRAME 517

only reached with the systematic analysis of the analyst had been suppressed because of this
frame at the right moment. And here we are familiarity.
likely to find the strongest resistance because it By using this familiar form of address, the
is not a repressed thing but something split and patient imposed his own frame, overlapping the
never differentiated; its analysis disturbs the analyst's, but really destroying the latter. The
ego and the most mature identity reached by the analyst was compelled to cope with a task that
patient. In these cases we don't interpret what represented too great an effort in the session
is repressed; we give rise to the secondary with his patient (and in his countertransference),
process. It is not interpreted on amnesic gaps and this led to an intensive change in the analytic
but on what never was part of the memory. It process and rupture in the patient's ego, which
is not projective identification either; it is the was surviving under unsafe conditions and with
expression of syncretism or the patient's a very limited "spectrum" of interest, with
" participation." intensive and extensive inhibitions. The change
The frame is part of the patient's body image; of the form of address through analysis led to
it is the body image in the part that has not the conclusion that this was not an obsessive
been structured and differentiated. It is thus phobic character but a simple schizophrenia
something different from the body image itself; with a phobic-obsessive characterological
it is the body-space and body setting non- " facade ".
differentiation. That is why the interpretation I do not think it would have been efficient
of gestures and body attitudes frequently enough to modify the familiar form of address
becomes persecutory, because we do not from the very beginning since the candidate
" move" the patient's ego, but rather his did not have the technical experience to handle
" meta-ego". a patient with a.strong narcissistic organization.
The analyst must not agree to use the familiar
I want to present now another example form of address himself, though he may accept
which also has the peculiarity that I cannot it on the part of his patient and analyse it at a
describe the" dumbness" of the frame but only suitable time (which I cannot place retro-
the moment when it reveals itself, when it has spectively). The analyst should accept the frame
stopped being dumb. I have already compared the patient brings (which is his "meta-ego")
it with the body image, the study of which was because there the non-solved primitive symbiosis
started precisely by the consideration of its is found summed up. But we must state, at the
disturbances. In this case, however, the psycho- same time, that to accept the patient's " meta-
analyst's frame itself was vitiated. ego" (the frame) does not mean to abandon
A colleague brought to a supervision session one's own, by means of which one is able to
the analysis of a patient whose transference analyse the process and to transform the frame
neurosis he had been interpreting for several itself into a process. Any interpretation of the
years; but the intractability of the case induced frame (not altered) stirs the psychotic part of
him to bring it to supervision. The patient the personality. It makes up what I have called
" respected" the frame and in this sense a split interpretation. But the analyst-patient
" there were no problems"; he associated well; relationship outside the strict frame (as in this
there was no "acting-out"; and the analyst example), as well as the "extra-analytic"
interpreted well in the area on which he was relationships, enable the psychotic transference
working. But the patient and the therapist to be concealed and favour the" development"
used the familiar form of address to each other of the" psycho-analytic character."
because the patient had suggested this at the
beginning of his analysis, and the therapist had Another patient, Mrs C, maintained her frame
accepted it. The analysis of the therapist's until she progressed in her pregnancy. She had
countertransference took many months till he never shaken hands since treatment started, but
finally" dared" to correct this familiar form of she now stopped greeting me when arriving or
address, interpreting to the patient what was leaving. I strongly resisted including in the
happening and what was hidden behind it. To interpretation that she had stopped greeting me,
stop using the familiar " tu " to each other as a but I could see in this the mobilization of her
result of its systematic analysis revealed the symbiotic relationship with her mother, of
narcissistic relationship and the omnipotent highly persecutory features, which became active
control, and how the person and role of the because of her pregnancy. Not to shake hands
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conditions (see terms.pep-web.org).

518 JOSE BLEGER

when arriving or leaving has been maintained therapeutic relationship between the analyst and
but there still lies an important part of " her the patient. This situation includes phenomena
frame", which is different from" mine". I which make up a process and which is studied,
believe that the situation is even more complex, analysed and interpreted; but it also includes a
because not to shake hands is not a mere detail frame, that is to say "a non-process" in the
which is missing to round up the frame. It is sense that it represents the constants, within
evidence that she has another frame, another whose limits the process occurs. The relation-
Gestalt which is not mine (that of the psycho- ship between them is studied and the frame is
analytic treatment) and in which her idealized explained as the set of constants within whose
relationship with her mother remained split. The limits the process takes place (variables). The
more we deal with the psychotic part of the basic aim is to study, not the breaking of the
personality, the more we must take into account frame, but its psycho-analytic meaning when
that a detail is not just a detail, but an expression " ideally normal" conditions are maintained.
of a Gestalt, that is to say, of a special organiza- Thus, the frame is studied as an institution
tion or structure. within whose limits phenomena occur which are
called " behaviours". In this sense, the frame
Summing up, we may say that a patient's
is " dumb" but not non-existent. It makes up
frame is his most primitive fusion with the
the non-ego of the patient, according to which
mother's body and that the psycho-analyst's
the ego shapes itself. This non-ego is the
frame must help to re-establish the original
" ghost world" of the patient, that lies in the
symbiosis in order to be able to change it. The
frame and represents a " meta-behaviour".
disruption of the frame, as well as its ideal or
The role of the frame is illustrated with some
normal maintenance, are technical and theoreti-
clinical examples which reveal the placement in
cal problems, but what basically blocks off any
the frame of the patient's most primitive
possibility of a profound treatment is the
"family institution". It is thus the perfect
disruption the analyst himself introduces or
repetition compulsion, which brings up the
admits in the frame. The frame can only be
primitive undifferentiation of the first stages of
analysed within the frame, or, in other words,
the organization of personality. The frame as
the patient's most primitive dependence and
an institution is the receiver of the psychotic
psychological organization can only be analysed
part of the personality, i.e. of the undifferentiated
within the analyst's frame, which should be
and non-solved part of the primitive symbiotic
neither ambiguous, nor changeable, nor altered.
links. The psycho-analytic meaning of the frame
SUMMARY defined in this way is then examined, as well as
I propose to call the psycho-analytic situation the relevance of these considerations for clinical
the sum total of phenomena involved in the work and technique.

REFERENCES

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1927.) Aires: Paidos.)
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JAQUES, E. (1951). The Changing Culture of a LITTLE, M. (1958)... On delusional transference."
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Avenida Quintana 437

Buenos Aires.
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