ABSTRACT
This chapter describes certain aspects of the analytic frame-the intersubjective role relationship and field conditions necessary for the emergence of progressive fittedness. Fittedness is an emergent property of non-linear, dynamic processes that are constantly evolving within the patient-analyst dyad, situated within the more inclusive analytic field as it self-organizes and reorganizes over time. In Bion's way of thinking, the intention to move toward progressive fittedness constitutes a form of 'desire'; a theoretical preconception that potentially interferes with the analyst's apprehension and processing of the total intersubjective, psychic reality of the session. In the context of adult analytic therapy the dyadic system is set in motion and driven primarily by the first pole: the patient's struggles, motivations, initiatives, implicit aims, therapeutic needs, and unconscious communications. Many of the patient's spontaneous communications reflect 'resistances' to the truly free associations necessary to directly expose the warded off memories and problematic unconscious conflicts.
