Termination reconsidered.

Abstract

The concept of termination is reviewed and reconsidered. It is suggested that the expression itself is a curiously inappropriate term with its negative and finite connotations which fail to convey the positive hopes for a new beginning that normally surround the end of a satisfactory analysis. The single word termination does not distinguish the external reality of interruption of visits to the analyst from the internal continuation of the analytic process. Moreover, it ignores the awkward circumstance that analysts on qualification often continue to meet their own analyst. Maybe termination remains the appropriate word for a forced or premature ending.