Meetings of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

April 12, 1949. TERMINATION OF ANALYSIS. Philip R. Lehrman, M.D. and Annie Reich, M.D.

The point of termination does not appear suddenly in an analysis but has appeared many times previously, often as a resistance, Dr. Lehrman states. As the valid demands of reality gain ascendency and are contrasted to the infantile demands of the analysis, the testing-out period for termination sets in. Fantasies relating to termination appear and afford material for working through.

Dr. Reich selected for investigation the typical transference situation as it exists toward the end of treatment. Unlike Ferenczi, she does not believe that the transference can be completely dissolved; inevitably there remains a residue of infantile cravings toward the analyst. Even after the transference has been well analyzed and its important infantile sexual elements overcome, even after the neurotic symptoms have been given up, the relationship to the analyst is not a completely mature one. The analyst is still excessively important to the patient—the object of fantastic expectations. In nearly all cases a wish to be loved by the analyst, to build up a friendship, remains. Further analysis of these wishes proves them to be pregenital derivatives of a relationship with the parents. Attainment of an important object relation at this time can lead to a complete decathexis of the transference, but this may simply be an anticipatory response to the loss of the analyst. Such a situation may occur particularly in the analysis of adolescents. The termination of analysis is necessarily felt as a loss, particularly by patients whose reality situation is not happy. However, after thorough analyses, the wish to retain the analyst is slowly given up and the libidinal investment on the analyst shifted to other objects. Symptoms may recur toward the end of the analysis and tenaciously retained fantasies may be revealed. Therefore it is helpful to plan the termination a few months in advance withou