[[Lacan]] conceives of this end-point in various ways:
;:1. In the early 1950s, the [[end of analysis]] is described as "the advent of a true speech and the realisation by the subject of his history."<ref>{{E}} p.88</ref> (see [[speech]]).
<blockquote>"The [[subject]] ... begins the analysis by speaking about himself without speaking to you, or by speaking to you without speaking about himself. When he can speak to you about himself, the analysis will be over."<ref>{{Ec}} p.373, n. 1</ref></blockquote>
The [[end of analysis]] is also described as coming to terms with one's own [[mortality]].<ref>{{E}} p.104-5</ref>
;:2. In 1960, [[Lacan]] describes the [[end of analysis]] as a state of [[anxiety]] and abandonment, and compares it to the [[helplessness]] of the human [[infant]].
;:3. In 1964 he describes it as the point when the [[analysand]] has "[[traverse]]d the radical [[fantasy]]."<ref>{{S11}} p.273</ref> (see [[fantasy]]).
;:4. In the last decade of his teaching, he describes the end of analysis as "[[identification]] with the ''[[sinthome]]''", and as "knowing what to do with the sinthome." (see ''[[sinthome]]'').
