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The end of analysis is always an instigating topic, and the clinical material presented by Dr. Mayer Subrin gives us an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences.
I see this exercise proposed by the IJPA in its section entitled ‘The Analyst at Work’, as an invitation for different analysts to offer their own viewpoints on the material presented, “providing a space where differences and commonalities are brought to the fore for the benefit of learning from another analyst's experience” (Scarfone, 2008, p. 5).
My reading of the material presented by Dr. Subrin does not always coincide with his own, and this may be a factor for growth for both of us as well as an expansion of the field of observation of psychic phenomena.
Dr. Subrin was certainly very discerning in formulating the following questions: ‘When does it occur to the analyst that termination is possible, and when to the patient? What has changed, what has not? What has yet to be done? What will be left undone or for another time?’ I will come back to these questions shortly.
Dr. Subrin introduces us to his patient by telling us she was in analysis with him for 13 years and that she had been through a previous analysis at a time when she was very depressed. She had even thought of committing suicide by stabbing herself in the abdomen with a kitchen-knife after undergoing two abortions, for lack of financial support from her husband and her extended family.
Subrin did not bring up these particular details by chance. He is telling us about two important aspects of the patient's personality. Firstly, that she feels she has been a victim and has been traumatized for lack of understanding, containment and support in her unfortunate circumstances. Secondly, she also sees herself as the victimizer, a person who has caused violence and death. These two aspects appear condensed into the fantasy of killing herself so she would be both victim and perpetrator of the violence.
I wonder about the possible presence