This paper is an attempt to start a discussion on the hitherto neglected topic of termination of treatment in adolescence, using material from the 4-year analysis of a 17-year-old boy. Termination issues were discussed under five headings:

1The Preconditions of a Terminal Phase. Many adolescents plan a unilateral termination of treatment at the very beginning or soon after treatment has started. It is often the condition under which the adolescent enters and thus avoids the analysis. I suggested that at some point in the treatment, the adolescent must be confronted with the seriousness of his disturbance and the necessity of giving himself up to the analytic process by relinquishing the plan for unilateral termination. Analysis cannot become terminable until it is experienced by the patient as interminable.