Attachment to the bad object has remained a durable, undertheorized clinical problem. With an extended clinical example, the experience of limit, in both patient and analyst, is examined as part of a dense undercurrent in the relationship, including transference, that gives rise to shifts in understanding the attachment to an unsatisfying internal object. Importantly, the patient’s and the analyst’s experiences of limit are “in play” during the process of changes in the patient’s attachment to the bad object. The relation of patient and analyst to the patient’s internal objects, including bad and unsatisfying objects, is where play itself begins. Limit itself is constitutive of play. The analyst’s attempt to analyze his own thoughts and experience regarding limits in maintaining an empathic connection to the patient’s psychic reality influences the patient’s capacity to take in a new part of his or her experience.

对坏物体的依恋仍然是一个持久的、理论不足的临床问题。通过一个扩展的临床例子，患者和分析师的极限体验被检查为关系中密集暗流的一部分，包括移情，这会导致理解对不令人满意的内部对象的依恋的转变。重要的是，在患者对坏客体的依恋变化过程中，患者和分析师的极限体验是“起作用的”。病人和分析师与病人的内在客体（包括坏的和不满意的客体）的关系是游戏本身的开始。限制本身就是游戏的组成部分。