The reaction to the termination of analysis is compared to mourning. It represents a painful process which takes time to subside. Even after successful analysis of the transference, the analyst is seen as an overimportant object that is only reluctantly given up by the patient. This is due to the inherent, infantile character of the analytic relationship. Although the patient's transference demands are not fulfilled, the analytic procedure as such represents a specific kind of narcissistic, frequently oral, passive gratification which cannot be denied to the patient, and the loss of which is followed by the afore-mentioned mourning reaction.

AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT