Mourning Analysis

The Post-Termination Phase

Bibliographic Data

ID8331950
AuthorsHeather Craige (0009-0002-2643-3296, Lucy Daniels Foundation, corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume50
Issue2
Pages507-550
Publication date2002-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0651 • E-ISSN: 1941-2460
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00030651020500021001
PMID12206542
OpenAlexW2042640046
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited55

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 “goodenough 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

Phase (matter) · Physics · Psychoanalysis · Family Support in Illness · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications

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