ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on ideas around separation, loss and mourning. Using the interview material from the 82 men and women who volunteered to discuss their experiences in ending their analyses, the chapter addresses the issue as well as the more general issue of the role grief plays. Two of the individuals in the chapter ended their treatment in anger at the analyst's setting limits one because her analyst refused to have a sexual relationship with her; the other because her analyst would not see her for a reduced fee after she had used up her inheritance. A third individual threatened to end treatment because she was angered by her analyst's refusal to read her literary work. When there is no grief due to anger, disappointment or defensive self-sufficiency, it seems there is unfinished analytic work. In contrast, it specifically explored grief in relation to earlier experiences of separation, loss and disappointment and in the context of the analytic relationship.
