ABSTRACT
We can probably all identify with environments having personalities or a character, but Paul Goodman introduced a concept in which he saw the origin of the drive in the situation encountered rather than seeing it as originating in the person. He called this ‘the id of the situation’. Jean-Marie Robine expanded on Goodman’s thinking when discussing the situation, considering that before a sensation begins to emerge, ‘a situation has already started to be built and will be ground for forthcoming figures’. Similar to the id of the situation are atmospheres. Each therapeutic encounter carries an atmosphere, a felt sense that is located in neither the therapist or the client but metaphorically is in the air between them. The atmosphere belongs to neither party, no one brings it to the situation, it is a shared phenomena of the situation that surrounds each person and at the same time exists between them.
