ABSTRACT
Elsewhere (Schlesinger, 2003), discussing the optimal therapeutic relationship, I promised that I would take up the phenomena of impasse and stalemate1 in a forthcoming work.Now is the time for that discussion. Impasse, generally considered among the most troublesome of the miseries of middle-phase analysis, may develop at any point in therapy when the two parties believe that uncomfortable stasis is preferable to risky movement. It is, however, especially likely to occur when the perceived risk is that forward movement might lead to the ending of the therapy and the feared dissolution of the therapeutic relationship. Before we proceed to a discussion of impasse as it relates especially to ending and termination, a review of the topic in general will be useful.
