Summary and Conclusions

THE MORNING WORKSHOPS TOUCHED on many issues. Opening the afternoon session I raised a question touched on in the literature and in some of the workshops. The comments that follow, are excerpted from the afternoon discussion. I asked if the terminal phase of analysis always included a period of mourning.

Not necessarily. (Szalita) For the analysts it is similar to having children leave home. (Gilbert) You have to differentiate between mourning and pathological mourning such as when there has been an early loss of the mother. (Moulton) Termination means something different to one's self, than it does to one's analyst, and may be different from the patient's reactions. (Szalita) Termination for people in this field is different from people not in the field. For the analyst it is important to understand what expectations he has of the analysand-in-training. The situation and circumstance of termination is important. What does it mean to terminate a training analysis with someone you still see once a month, or have dinner with before coming to a meeting? (Witenberg) The perception of the issue of mourning has much to do with one's value system. Some people feel that there has been more authenticity and sensitivity if the patient, and especially the analyst, mourns the termination. Maybe its okay to feel relief at the termination of an analysis. (Levenson) Often the pain of leaving is the pain of unrealized claims. (Mendelson) Sometimes a non-relationship has existed, and it is this, that is hard to face when stopping analysis. (Schecter) Where there is more ambivalence and trauma in childhood, stopping is more difficult. (Moulton) When I stopped my analysis I missed Paris, not my analyst. I was too busy working to miss my analyst. As a result of my analysis I did feel more independent, more grown-up, and more myself. (Szalita) I think you can leave analysis with both pleasure and regret. They are not mutually exclusive (Schecter). It's like reading