On limit and limit setting

This article investigates the role of limit and limit setting within the psychoanalytic situation. Limit is understood to be a boundary between self and others, established as an interactional dimension of experience. Disorders of limit are here understood within the context of Winnicott's conception of the "anti-social tendency." Limit setting is proposed as a necessary and authentic response to the patient's acting out via holding and empathic responsiveness, viewed here as a form of boundary delineation. It is proposed that the patient attempts to repair his or her boundary problem through a seeking of secure limits within the analyst. The setting of secure and appropriate limits must arise from a working through of the analyst's own countertransference response to the patient. It is critical that this response be evoked by, and arise from, the immediate therapeutic interaction so that the patient can experience limit setting as simultaneously personal and authentic.