Mourning analysis: the post-termination phase.
One hundred twenty-one analytic candidates who had completed training analysis responded to a survey about their post-termination experience. Seventy-six percent of respondents experienced a mourning process that lasted on average between six months and a year, while 24 per cent experienced no discernible sense of painful loss. Twenty candidates were interviewed to obtain a deeper understanding of the mourning process that follows analysis. During the post-termination phase, the analysand's self-analytic capacity is tested in the struggle to contain and understand feelings about the loss of the analyst, as well as transference reactions triggered by that loss. After a "good-enough analysis," the analysand internalizes not only the analyst's functions and attitudes toward him or her, but also a sustaining, positive internal image of the analyst. Four cases illustrate unexpected difficulties that may emerge during the post-termination phase when the loss of the analyst is experienced as a repetition of earlier, traumatic losses or as a rupture of an unanalyzed, selfobject transference.
UNC-Duke Psychoanalytic Education Program, USA. Hcraige@ipass.net
Heather
H
Craige
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D003625:Data Collection; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009769:Object Attachment; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D012647:Self-Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors