ABSTRACT
It obviously makes a difference if one thinks of psychoanalysis as a treatment-a cure for an ailment-or as an experience. Accounts of psychoanalysis as treatment demand plausibility and coherence, not to mention intelligibly formulated criteria for professional ef‰ciency. From the point of view of treatment, psychoanalysis is an elaborate exercise in problem solving expected to adhere to the satisfying narrative structure of a beginning, a middle, and, preferably, a happy end. But to the extent that the purview of psychoanalysis is experience-the place where the singularity of a person’s idiosyncratic desire meets the contingencies of life-it is virtually impossible to create a consensual vocabulary for knowing when enough is enough.
