ABSTRACT
To the degree that the holding metaphor originates within the parentchild matrix, it is essentially one that psychoanalysis has borrowed from life. Perhaps because of the apparent purity of the treatment con text, the holding theme is especially easy to parse out within a thera peutic interaction. This does not mean, however, that the holding pro cess is invisible elsewhere. To the contrary, the human need for the illusion of parental attunement is ubiquitous. It pervades the life of the individual and the culture. Holding processes take a variety of forms, always reflecting individual need as well as sociocultural idiosyn crasies with regard to the interface of individual and group needs. What nevertheless binds these experiences together is the pervasive presence of a need for a particular sort of illusion. That illusion con cerns the parental object's capacity to reliably receive, meet, and toler ate the individual's need.
