The Evolution of Object Usage and the Holding Environment

Abstract

The present paper will attempt to examine and delineate those processess that facilitate the acquisition of object usage. I shall propose that analytic holding initially permits the patients to acquire a capacity for object relating by providing a situation which does not require that the patient sift out the projective from the real aspects of the object. During object relating, the patient's emotional position vis-a-vis the analyst is a highly sensitive one because the patient tends to easily experience emotional disruption in response to even small shifts in the analyst's affective presence. In order for the patient to acquire a more even sense of relatedness and to reach object usage, a complex interplay between holding and failures in holding must take place.