ABSTRACT
Ending is the most difficult and most important part of psychotherapy. Like the surgeon, the therapist should be as concerned about "getting out" as about "getting in ." I have never known a conscientious psychotherapist who did not have trouble with endings. In part, the trouble is attributable to the fact that separations are the most difficult of human experiences. Another source of trouble is that many therapists have wrong expectations about ending, considering it to be a uniform process. To speak of "patterns" of ending psychotherapy implies that there is more than one way in which psychotherapy may end. There are in fact several, the choice determined mostly by the character of the patient but also by how the therapist treats him. While the "principles" that govern the activity of the therapist, particularly around endings, are the same for all psychoanalytically inspired treatments, whatever the nature of the patient, the application of these principles will differ depending upon the personality and pathology of the patient (Schlesinger, 2003). It follows that the therapist should be prepared for the way the patient is likely to anticipate and experience the ending of treatment.
