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[[Lacan]]'s answer is that [[psychoanalytic treatment]] is a [[progress|logical process]] with a beginning and an end-point, designated as the "[[end of analysis]]".
===Aim===
The [[end of analysis|''end'' of analysis]] must be distinguished from the ''[[End of analysis|aim]]'' of [[psychoanalytic treatment]].
While not all [[treatment|analyses]] are carried through to their [[progress|conclusion]], any [[treatment|analysis]] -- however incomplete -- may be regarded as successful when it achieves this [[end of analysis|aim]].
The question of the [[end of analysis]] is therefore something more than whether a [[treatment|course]] of [[treatment|analytic treatment]] has or has not achieved its aim; it is a question of whether or not the [[treatment]] has reached its ''logical [[End of analysis|end-point'']].
==End=Definition===[[Lacan]] conceives of this [[End of analysis|end-point ]] in various ways.
:1. In the early 1950s, [[Lacan]] describes the [[end of analysis]] as "the advent of a true [[speech]] and the realization by the [[subject]] of his [[history]]" -- that is, as coming to terms with one's own [[death|mortality]].<ref>{{E}} p.88</ref>
:<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>
:2. In 1960, [[Lacan]] describes the [[end of analysis]] as a state of [[anxiety]] and [[anxiety|abandonment]] -- that is, as a state of [[helplessness]].
:3. In 1964, [[Lacan]] describes the [[end of analysis]] as the point when the [[analysand]] "traverses the radical [[fantasy]]."<ref>{{S11}} p.273</ref>
:4. In the final decade of his teaching, [[Lacan]] describes the [[end of analysis]] as an "[[identification]] with the ''[[sinthome]]''."
====Position of Analysand and Analyst====In general, the [[end of analysis]] involves two fundamental changes in the respective [[discourse|subjective positions ]] of
* the [[analysand]] -- the "[[subjective destitution]]" of the [[analysand]], and
* the [[analyst]] -- the "[[loss of being]]" ([[FrFrench]]. : ''[[désêtre]]'') of the [[analyst]].
The [[analyst]] is reduced -- from the [[discourse|position ]] of the [[subject-supposed-to-know]] -- to a mere [[surplus]], a [[objet petit a]], the [[cause]] of the [[analysand]]'s [[desire]].
====Passage from Analysand to Analyst====
For [[Lacan]], the [[end of analysis]] is also the passage from [[analysand]] to [[analyst]] -- for all [[psychoanalysts]] must undergo [[analytic treatment]] from beginning to end before being allowed to practice as [[analysts]].
<blockquote>"The true termination of an analysis" is therefore no more and no less than that which "prepares you to become an analyst."<ref>{{S7}} p. 303</ref></blockquote>
===Misconceptions=======Identification with the Analyst====
[[Lacan]] criticizes those [[psychoanalysts]] who describe the [[end of analysis]] in terms of [[identification]] with the [[analyst]].
For [[Lacan]], it is not only possible, but necessary to go beyond [[identification]], for otherwise it is not [[psychoanalysis]] but [[suggestion]] -- which is the antithesis of [[psychoanalysis]].
====Transference====
[[Lacan]] also criticizes those [[psychoanalysts]] who describe the [[end of analysis]] in terms of "liquidation" of the [[transference]].
Although [[analytic treatment]] does involve the resolution of the particular ''[[transference|transference relationship]]'' established with the [[analyst]], [[transference]] itself still subsists after the [[end of analysis]].
====Other Misconceptions====
The [[end of analysis]] does not involve:
* the strengthening the [[ego]]* the [[adaptation ]] to [[reality]]* the [[disappearance ]] of the [[symptom]]* the [[cure ]] of an underlying disease (e.g.''[[neurosis]]'')
For [[Lacan]], [[analysis]] is not essentially a [[treatment|therapeutic process ]] but rather a search for [[truth]] -- and the [[truth]] is not always beneficial.<ref>{{S17}} p.122</ref>
==See Also==
