The starting point for this paper is Freud's thinking about the duration and preconditions for ending psychoanalysis. His psychoanalytic treatments were very intense, but varied greatly in duration. Freud's assertion that deep-going psychological changes take time is still equally topical; however, the length of the necessary time has gradually increased. Available documentation from psychoanalytic training institutes and empirical studies indicates that the mean duration of psychoanalysis ranges between three and seven years and varies between different countries and time periods. A recent survey among Swedish psychoanalysts found a mean duration of included psychoanalytic treatments of 5.7 year, comparable to what has been reported in other studies, and a wide variation in the duration of psychoanalyses, from 1.5 to 12 years. The survey did not include questions about the background and reasons for termination. We conclude with a discussion of different meaning of time in open-ended psychoanalytic treatments, and we stress the need of systematic studies of the determinants and underlying processes behind the varying duration of psychoanalyses.