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This volume deals with the process of drawing an analysis to a conclusion, theoretically and in clinical practice. De Simone questions how an analysis can be terminated and then reflects on meaningful experiences during the psychoanalytic process, on classical theoretical models, difficult conclusions (without underestimating the controversial subject of the criteria for concluding the analysis), and the postanalytical phase.
The author's position is that technically and theoretically there is no particular way or time to conclude treatment. She does, however, consider the problem of how and when to guide thoughts and associations in the direction of a conclusion. She links this with an ability of the analysis to have produced separateness in order to arrive at separation.
De Simone agrees with many others who maintain that the idea of completion should not be foremost in the mind of the analyst and patient—even if it is an element throughout the analysis—otherwise it will impede the analytical process. This implies that, apart from thinking about the way an analysis is developing, one has to reflect about the acquisition or reacquisition of a sense of time. Temporality and the psychoanalytical process are viewed in the light of Nachträglichkeit which links past, present, and future and thereby creates fresh possibilities for transformation.