You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
‘Ending,’ Dr. Schlesinger asserts, ‘is what psychotherapy is all about’ (pp. xi, 23). In this book he explores in detail the end phase as it occurs in brief and long-term treatments including psychoanalysis, and the challenge posed to both the patient and the therapist. He reserves the familiar term ‘termination’ for particular aspects of the concluding psychological work.
By linking endings with beginnings in the title of his book, Dr. Schlesinger also makes the important point that they are not events separated in time, but rather inextricably intertwined phenomena. Thus, what transpires when a patient begins a psychotherapy is informed by endings in previous human relationships. The author notes further that the form and function of treatments' ending, as well as the associated difficulties, will often be discernible in the opening phase, or even in the evaluative interviews that precede it. For the therapist to be aware of these and other unconscious communications early on can be very useful to the treatment once it has begun and in facilitating its later progression toward a finite end.
The author is fond of using ordinary English words and elects to use those that are ‘more-or-less synonyms to particularize endings’ (p. 3). By this he means words such as ‘stop, finish, quit, flee, interrupt, discontinue, elope, drop out’ (p. 1). In this book they, and additional terms, are used to convey singular meaning. He promises he