ABSTRACT
It has long been recognized that the process of terminating is stressful for analyst and analysand. Under ordinary circumstances, it is, of course, the analysand who feels far more pained in response to the sharp sense of loss occasioned by the impending separation. The analysand feels increased temptation to regress back into disturbed emotional positions that have been worked on extensively and even appear to have been worked through adequately. In these regressive shifts, primitive defenses will be intensified. She or he hopes that these changes will forestall such painful subjective correlates of separation as grief, guilt, feelings of disappointment and resentment, and fears for the future. Separation is conceived in all-or-nothing terms, physical separation being equated with total loss.
