What is a "good enough" termination?
In Freud's technique papers, he failed to develop a systematic approach to termination. Much of the existing literature is based on psychoanalytic mythologies about the way patients are expected to end analysis. The models described in the literature are often starkly at odds with what one sees in clinical practice. A wish for idealized versions of termination underlies much of what has been written, and we need to shift to a conceptual model involving "good enough" termination. A number of different endings to psychoanalysis may, in the long run, lead to productive outcomes; these models are examined, as are various approaches to the dilemmas presented at the time of termination.
Gabbard
Glen O
GO
Baylor School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,Houston-Galveston Psychoanalytic Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA. ggabbard12@aol.com
D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003657:Decision Making; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D004644:Emotions; D005619:Freudian Theory; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D014167:Transference, Psychology; D016896:Treatment Outcome