Aloneness is a subtle destroyer of the sense of the real. In the privacy of our own company, our minds play tricks on us. When good things turn to bad, we reflexively curl inward, creating a self-enclosed mental world of doubt and uncertainty in the process. What seemed so real and true before no longer seems so anymore. In speaking of a therapeutic holding environment then, I am describing a relationship that overcomes the patient’s sense of self-insulation and meaningless isolation by enabling him to feel that he belongs to the analyst.