A theory of the setting: The transformation of unrepresented experience and play

Abstract

The psychoanalytic setting can be defined in part by its functions. The setting operates as an auxiliary function for the analyst's capacities, which include containment, interpretation, as a participant in play, and supervisor of the setting. The setting houses the transition from unrepresented to represented experience. The setting is a location for the dynamic transit between vital, interactive elements of both containment and interpretation of the patient's unconscious and conscious experience. Process and non-process elements of the setting are always interacting with one another because the objects' internal fantasies of the setting are always juxtaposed with the constant, structural elements of the setting. The author attempts to further elaborate the relationship of play to understanding unrepresented experience.