Some issues affecting termination. The treatment of a high-risk adolescent

This paper addresses some of the difficulties of termination in the psychoanalytic psychotherapy of a deprived, high-risk adolescent girl, who had two previous treatments. Some commonly referred to issues are explored: termination and the developmental process of adolescence; the relationship between termination, mourning, and internalization; the need for the resolution of the transference and careful monitoring of the countertransference; the importance of the transference resolution of the oedipus complex and related issues concerning preoedipal development and identification; and the consolidation of ego strength.