Termination and the problem of analytic goals: patient and analyst, different perspectives

The author of this paper explores the different perspectives through which patient and analyst view termination and the problem of analytic goals. These differences become clear through a case study, in which the patient offered resistance to many of the treatment goals, which did not fit her life goals and, at the same time, threatened her defences and her precarious well-being. In order to achieve the main treatment goal, that of maturity and growth (which in analysis was expressed through sub-goals like separation from her mother, understanding of her symptoms, acceptance of her feminine identity, acceptance of limitations of age and the terminability of life), the patient and the analyst had to confront an intense psychic pain connected to what they perceived as irretrievable losses. The fear of growth and growing old affected both partners of the analytic couple and had an impact on the extent to which analytic goals were met. The author explores the satisfactory aspects of termination, as well as what the analyst viewed as the incomplete results of analysis, when analysis was terminated and ten years later.