Transference: The Matrix of the Frame

Abstract

I use the clinical example of a traumatized adolescent to talk about how a transference experience creates the frame where the analytic work occurs. Out of the external boundaries of the relationships with an object, the internal frame, the womb of transformation processes, is created. The analyst’s capacity to wait is essential for the transformation that creates and shapes the transference experience, which, like playing, becomes the matrix of the frame where it happens as it happens. As the traumatic experiences find their place in the transference and begin to be integrated, the adolescent becomes more present and real in the session.