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The idea that the ending of psychotherapeutic or psychoanalytic treatment is not a fixed matter but more a function of its beginning, its process, and the unique relationship between each patient and therapist is the foundation of
this wise and compactly written sequel to the author's book on technique (Schlesinger 2003). Like that first book, to which the author makes abundant reference and wherein this project was promised, Beginnings and Endings is a compendium of common and uncommon sense. As if one were sitting at a master's feet, this sense begins with Schlesinger's oft-stated idea that ending is what therapy and analysis are all about. Something very close to this theme is taken up and echoed in Joseph Caston's recent contribution in this journal, in which he argues that the narrative structures inherent in both poems and treatments prefigure their endings (Caston 2007). This idea of intertwined endings and beginnings leads the reader beyond mere matters of technique, such that the book stands as an important contribution to our field's ongoing discussion of therapeutic action.
Already featured in a lively and well-attended Meet-the-Author discussion at the 2007 winter meeting of APsaA, the book opens with a no-frills preface for the “browser,” in which the author provides us the gist of his argument. This overview permits the reader to fully engage with what follows, as chapters range from definitions to patterns (with illustrations) and indicators for ending treatment, to working on termination with vulnerable patients, the problem of impasse or stalemate, the vicissitudes of loss and mourning, therapist burnout, and other countertransference phenomena. As in the earlier book, the author suggests explicit, jargon-free, patient-centered interventions that engage the patient's latent and often guarded thoughts about termination while at the same time moving matters forward. It is a bonus that the life and mind of the therapist/analyst figure prominently but