When things go well: "terminable" or "interminable" analysis? The breaks and conclusions in psychoanalysis.

Criteria for the evaluation of the conclusion of the analytical path had already been dealt with by Freud (1937) in «Die endiiche und die unendiiche Analyse". In the following decades, with the change of theoretical assumptions and then with the new acquisitions in the field of Infant Research, which places the caregiver-child interaction as the foundation in the co-construction of the latter's personality, it became necessary to rethink the subject. This can be of great help to the psychotherapist, especially if the analysis is interrupted. In fact, even if the experience of unsuccessful therapeutic pathways can lead the analyst to a retrospective reflection on what happened during the therapeutic pathway, there is no doubt that this could cause him/her a sense of disenchantment and inadequacy (Paradisi et al., 2015). For this reason it may be important to give the right weight to the experiences of interruption and early conclusion, not only from the point of view of the relational matrix between patient and analyst (evaluating the elements that have negatively affected the development of the therapeutic relationship), but also to consider the areas of non-analysability of the patient himself. In fact, each patient has his or her own "basic rock" (Cooper, 1991) which is not always accessible to a psychoanalytical exploration. This doesn't mean that this "rock" will never be accessible, but that the patient will be able to do it later, resuming the therapy or will be able to do it autonomously. This will depend above all on how far the analytical path has managed to activate a post-analytical phase, in which the patient will continue to explore his mental and affective modes of functioning. All this leads, therefore, to consider the analysis interminable, since it is not as important as it will have been revealed in the therapeutic phase with the analyst, but rather it will have helped to activate a post-analytical phase that will contribute to the patient's perennial self-analysis.