ABSTRACT
The meaning of the concept of termination can be traced back to Joan Riviere’s 1937 translation of Freud’s paper, “Analysis terminable and interminable.” The temporal realities of Chronos dictated that in order for termination to signify the end of a treatment, all neurotic wishes and hopes, whether rooted in the abandonment of drive satisfactions, object relation wishes, etc. needed to be resolved, period. Captures what psychoanalysts struggled with as they wavered between an adherence, or rather a loyalty, to a drive theory paradigm and a growing intrigue with a newer object relational paradigm. Drive theory is given the explanatory priority, while a more relational paradigm is sort of tucked in as an afterthought. The chapter considers alternative models of termination, models that are not rooted solely in death and mourning and, moreover, are derived from other models of time that are more closely allied with relational theory.
