ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author proposes a model of the analytic frame that highlights its multi-faceted and heterogeneous make-up. This model recognizes that, far from being inert, the analytic frame is naturally always adjusting, its different components held at all times in a dynamic tension. The author focuses particularly on the organic or framing dimension where, like a living skin, the frame adjusts to micro-changes in the clinical process. He also focuses on the last characteristic of the frame—the function of the frame as a shared contact barrier or membrane. The author suggests that the vitality of the frame-as-contact-barrier depends upon the quality of an ongoing psycho-sensory bond between patient and therapist. If the function of a frame is to secure a backdrop, demarcate a space, and provide a structure so that a distinct kind of experience can evolve within that space, it is usual to think of it as essentially inert.
