ABSTRACT
On approaching the topic of termination in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, it is immediately apparent that the area opened up for discussion is an important one for a number of reasons. In "Analysis Terminable and Interminable" Freud dies the patient who criticizes his former analyst to his present, second analyst, for incompletely analysing his negative transference. The fact of the imminence of ending in both the analyst's mind and that of the patient brings a particular atmosphere to the arena of the analytic work. The patient registers psychic change in himself, change that is often unexpected, different from the idealized, omnipotent expectations he may have held for himself and for the analytic process. There are the patient's phantasies of the extra-analytic relationship, both conscious and also often making an appearance in dreams. Return of symptoms which have in the past yielded to analytic understanding can be a problematic feature, alarming to both patient and analyst.
