The Concept of Termination and the Evolution of Psychoanalytic Thought

Abstract

Termination is a post-Freud contribution to the psychoanalytic process, which is never complete. The concept is illuminated in its analytic history and development. A formal well-defined terminal phase led to a tripartite psychoanalytic process which derived from and contributed to advances in psychoanalytic theory and knowledge. The terminal phase is a valuable addition and conclusion, but may be invested with irrational expectation and analytic myth. Various features and formulations of the terminal phase are explored, and the limitations of termination are noted.

Mourning Analysis: The Post-Termination Phase

“…Future research using an empirical phenomenological research method (see, e.g., Conway 1999) to study analysands as they move though the post-termination phase might elucidate facets of post-termination experience other than mourning, such as disappointment and deidealization of the analyst (Schmideberg 1938;Buxbaum 1950;Firestein 1969;Novick 1982;Hartlaub, Martin, and Rhine 1986;Blum 1989;Tyson 1996). Ideally, studies of post-termination processes should occur in the context of an analytic research program in which the whole analysis is studied prospectively and the patient is followed longitudinally so that information from the analysis proper and the analyst's perspective would be ref lected in the research f indings about post-termination.…”

“…For many analysands, termination provides an opportunity to smoke out and reintegrate emotional reactions to signif icant earlier losses that had been split off from consciousness and not yet experienced through the transference (Keiser in Robbins 1975;Blum 1989;Ferraro 1995). She was in the hospital for three months and came home a quadriplegic.…”

“…Many analysts who write about termination note that mourning the loss of the analyst does not reach completion until well after patient and analyst cease to meet (Buxbaum 1950;Weigert 1955;Reich 1950;Deutsch 1959;Ticho 1967;Loewald 1962;Blum 1989;Berenstein and Fondevila 1989;Rucker 1993;Orgel 2000). Many analysts who write about termination note that mourning the loss of the analyst does not reach completion until well after patient and analyst cease to meet (Buxbaum 1950;Weigert 1955;Reich 1950;Deutsch 1959;Ticho 1967;Loewald 1962;Blum 1989;Berenstein and Fondevila 1989;Rucker 1993;Orgel 2000).…”

From Termination to the Evolution of a Relationship: A New Understanding

“…In a 1987 address to the American Psychoanalytic Association on the development of the concept of termination, Blum (1989) notes that Glover's (1955) view both reflected and was embraced as the analytic standard. The broader survey of the analytic literature on termination shows the pervasiveness of the ideals of autonomous functioning, the therapeutic necessity of the termination process, and the requirement of the final cessation of contact delineated by Glover.…”

Termination: The hidden face of analysis

“…This issue goes beyond the aim of this present contribution, but like lemma it underlies the analyst’s activity, especially for termination where it is more easily left in the shadows than for the beginning of the treatment, for reasons that I can only outline here. Firstly, by taking into account Blum’s (1989) remark on the historical coincidence in the development of analytic thought between the interest for countertransference and questions linked to termination. Secondly, by examining certain implications of the position of Garella (2008) who has recently defended the importance of the analyst’s ethical position in regard to termination, particularly in respect of two constitutive aspects: (1) the need for the analyst to take into account a liminal temporality marking the inception of the final phase as a psychical experience of time with its limits and its completeness in relation to the analytic work; and (2) the emergence of a tragic scenario in the analytic field around this quest for truth about oneself, organized around a twofold conflict between the desire to continue and the perception of a limit to the analytic work on the one hand, and between the issue of distinguishing the illusory from the possible in this quest on the other.…”