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Termination of treatment confronts patients and analysts with both personal and universal realities about the meaning of time. In relation to personal issues, awareness of the reality of ending may lead previously hidden difficulties to surface in the analytic work. The analytic relationship itself may have served to reinforce unconscious omnipotent and omniscient fantasies at least in part by resistance to recognition of the transference. Similarly, existential concerns about loss, separation, the limits and limitations of others and oneself, about time itself, and the inevitability of aging and death may also be pushed to the forefront of consciousness. Because of the awareness of limited time, termination of treatment may be the trigger for both participants to confront these concerns regardless of their individual psychological organization and histories. Depending on their phase in the life cycle, the participants focus on different aspects of the
meaning of time and termination, though it is always our hope that the analyst is also focusing on the aspects that are central for the patient. Clinical illustrations are provided.