The resolution of the countertransference is presented as a means of determining the approaching termination of psychoanalysis. The disappearance of symptoms is not always a reliable guide, and the ideal goals of mature adaptation to reality can easily become impositions of the superego, which elicit self-deception and pretense. In terminal phases of analyses the resolution of countertransference goes hand in hand with the resolution of transference, which Ferenczi first called to our attention. Countertransference, particularly its empathic aspect, has been more keenly observed in the recent psychoanalytic literature. When the phenomena of transference and countertransference recede, analyst and analysand can be more direct and frank with each other, the psychoanalytic situation is largely cleared of anxieties and defenses against them, and the road is opened for the synthetic functioning of the patient's ego.