Post-termination patient-analyst contact: I. Analysts' attitudes and experience; II. Impact on patients

Post-termination patient-analyst review, due to the increased psychological distance from the patient provided by the passage of time, generates an advantaged perspective of the gains and limitations of analytic work than was possible at treatment termination. Despite analysts' widespread belief that such analyst-initiated contact is deleterious to the patient, assessment of clinical experience with such contacts by Luborsky, Martin and Schlessinger, as well as by re-evaluated data of Wallerstein, indicates little or no damage to patients, and in some cases distinct benefits. Analysts generally make post-termination contact with their patients conditional upon the patient's need for additional help, although their personal experience is of unconditional extensive contacts with their own training analyst. Whether expectation of and experience of substantial post-termination contact with the patient's analyst impacts on either the degree of mourning or of resolution of residual transference requires evaluation.