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As the authors point out in their Introduction, for them this book is a ‘point of arrival after a long voyage’. This voyage refers to the work the two Italian psychoanalysts have carried out, and will continue to carry out, on the ending of analysis, thanks to their particular interest in this subject. Such a ‘point of arrival’, however, is provisional and only momentarily concludes a ‘virtually never-ending research’. Precisely due to this characteristic, they felt at a certain point that an attempt should be made to put this research ‘in order and in a historical perspective’ (p. 7): this book is the result.
Along their research path Ferraro and Garella, members of the Italian Society of Psychoanalysis, have already published two works together on the theme of termination in the Rivista di Psicoanalisi, as well as in-depth historical-critical notes in Nachträglichkeit. Alone, Fausta Ferraro (2001, 2003) has published two recent works on psychic bisexuality.
One of the first qualities of this book is that none of the numerous concepts or theoretical references that the authors needed to take into consideration when dealing with such a complex subject is taken for granted: each one is given its own context of significance (with references to the literature) or further significance (according to the meanings previously worked out and included in their work).
The first part, entitled ‘Una storia lunga un secolo’ [A story a century long], offers a particularly comprehensive overview of the psychoanalytic literature on the ending of analysis. It takes its cue from Freud's work (particularly Freud, 1937), which is also examined from the point of view of a possible dialogue with Ferenczi. Further contributions on the subject of termination are subsequently illustrated up