[The termination dream. On the significance of last dreams in psychoanalysis]

In the main, recent psychoanalytic literature on dreams proceeds on the assumption a) that the final dream in a course of psychoanalytic treatment directly reflects concrete themes associated with termination; b) that it reproduces, albeit in a strongly modified form, central themes from the initial stages; c) that initial symptomatologies recur; and d) that the analyst appears in a close and overt relation to this modified symptomatology. With reference to three cases from her own practice the author contends that a typology of "concluding" dreams does not reflect the reality of treatment and its success or failure and that there is little justification for generalizing about such dreams. The analysis of dreams, she insists, will always differ in accordance with the individual case.