ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses different ways of ending therapy, or ‘termination’ as it is infelicitously called; but also the aim, or ‘end’ which one might expect to achieve in the course of therapy. In medical practice, treatment is brought to an end either when the patient is cured, or else when the doctor decides that as much as can be done has been done to relieve a disability. Some patients certainly have appalling childhoods; and adult difficulties are undoubtedly related to their childhood experiences. But it is important to remember that what one child finds traumatic, another may not, to acknowledge the role of genetic and contextual factors, and to dispel the notion that psychotherapy is primarily a kind of treasure hunt for traumatic incidents. Some patients are anxious to have done with therapy as soon as they possibly can; and these present no problem in termination other than that of deterring them from ending treatment prematurely.
