Framing the Gap: Discussing Analytic Fostering

In my commentary, I discuss the ways Danielle Novack joins the body of analytic writing about people on the continuum of “lostness” and how we adapt the analytic frame to reach them. Novack offers a beautiful clinical example of “analytic fostering” by becoming her patient’s lifeline. However, I take issue with the use of the term fostering as foster children never afford the illusion that their foster homes are “theirs.” In psychoanalysis we strive to offer a sense of a lasting home rather than a temporary refuge. I introduce Milner’s idea of the “framed gap” to conceptualize the analytic framing process and end with some thoughts about the societal meaning of the recurrent presentation of people struggling to feel alive and the ways the framed time and space we offer in analysis becomes sacred – holding the potential for awakening new life.