ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this part of the book. The part focuses on technical parameters that were originally put forward to explain specific findings. But with the passage of time, their use was widened to the point where they are now applied to psychodynamic work with all patients. The part argues that how important it is to bear in mind how these concepts came to be formulated, in order to preserve their use exclusively with patients who actually justify their application. The patients who experience distress at any change of the analytic setting happen to be the same patients who led therapists' teachers to put forward the concepts of holding and containing. Winnicott commented how after each patient left his consulting room, he went round making sure that the next patient would find the room exactly as he/she had left it after their previous session.
