ABSTRACT
The question of the termination in psychoanalytic treatment poses a large number of problems at clinical, technical and theoretical level. The relevant debates and round-table discussions have been summarized elsewhere (Firestein 1980). For the sake of conciseness, this chapter will be confined to a discussion of the relations between the end of the analysis and separation anxiety. The place assigned by psychoanalysts to separation anxiety in the
process of termination of the analysis varies with the termination ‘model’ taken as one’s reference. If the end of the analysis is regarded as a separation occurring between the analysand and the analyst, the work of mourning will tend to be considered an important component of the transference/ counter-transference link. I personally believe that the analysand’s capacity to cope with the work of mourning that precedes, accompanies and follows the termination of the analysis is one of the principal criteria not only of the end of the analysis but also of the psychoanalytic process itself. I also believe that the work of mourning plays an important part in the terminal phase of the treatment, and that its success or failure will substantially determine whether the analysis can be deemed to be finished or, conversely, interminable.
