ABSTRACT
The frame is a concept which encompasses all the physical and psychological elements characterizing the interplay in the psychoanalytic space and which distinguishes it from the interplay which takes place in the social space. The frame is expressed through four elements: psychological preparation, the physical arrangement, the contract, and instruction. One expresses that the question of time and duration is subordinate to the aim of the treatment: different patients need different time frames to be able to continue the work on their own. Psychoanalytic therapy happens with the patient lying down, and involves a specific spatial arrangement: an analytic couch and a chair that is placed by the head end of the couch. Lying down means that the patient is deprived of direct face-to-face contact with the therapist and is thus less able to “check on” the therapist’s gaze.
