"[[end of analysis]]" ([[Fr]]. ''[[fin d'analyse]]'')
---
In ''Analysis Terminable and Interminable'', [[Freud]] reflects upon whether it is ever possible to discusses the question of whether it is ever possible to conclude an [[analysis]], or whether all [[analyses]] are necessarily incomplete.<ref>{{F}} ''Analysis Terminable and Interminable''. 1937. [[SE]] XXIII p.211</ref>
[[Lacan]]'s answer to this question is that it is indeed possible to speak of concluding an [[analysis]].
Although not all [[analyses]] are carried through to their conclusion, [[analytic treatment]] is a logical process which has an end, and [[Lacan]] designates this end-point by the term "[[end of analysis]]" ([[Fr]]. ''[[fin d'analyse]]'').
==The Aim of Psychoanalytic Treatment==
Given that many [[analyses]] are broken off before the [[end of analysis]] is reached, the question arises as to whether such [[analyses]] can be considered successful or not.
To answer this question it is necessary to distinguish between the [[end of analysis]] and the [[end of analysis|aim of psychoanalytic treatment]].
The [[end of analysis|aim of psychoanalytic treatment]] is to lead the [[analysand]] to articulate the [[truth]] about his [[desire]].
Any [[analysis]], however incomplete, may be regarded as successful when it achieves this aim.
The question of the [[end of analysis]] is therefore something more than whether a course of [[analytic treatment]] has or has not achieved its aim; it is a question of whether or not the [[treatment]] has reached its logical end-point.
==Stages==
[[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>
:<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>
: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]]."
==Subjective Destitution==
Common to all these formulations is the idea that the [[end of analysis]] involves a change in the [[subjective position]] of the [[analysand]] (the [[analysand]]'s '[[subjective destitution]]'), and a corresponding change in the position of the [[analyst]] (the [[being|loss of being]] [[Fr]]. ''[[being|désêtre]]'' of the [[analyst]], the fall of the [[analyst]] from the position of the [[subject-supposed-to-know]]).
At the [[end of analysis]], the [[analyst]] is reduced to a mere [[surplus]], a pure [[objet petit a]], the [[cause of desire|cause of the analysand's desire]].
==Analytic Training==
Since [[Lacan]] argues that all psychoanalysts should have experienced the process of [[analytic treatment]] from beginning to end, the [[end of analysis]] is also the passage from [[analysand]] to [[analyst]].
<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>
==The Pass==
In 1967, Lacan introduced the procedure of the [[pass]] as a means of testifying to the [[end of analysis]].
By means of this procedure, [[Lacan]] hoped to avoid the dangers of regarding the [[end of analysis]] as a quasi-mystical, ineffable experience.
Such a view is antithetical to [[psychoanalysis]], which is all about putting things into words.
==Identification with the Analyst==
Lacan criticises those [[psychoanalysts]] who have seen the [[end of analysis]] in terms of [[identification]] with the [[analyst]].
In opposition to this view of [[psychoanalysis]], [[Lacan]] states that the "crossing of the plane of identification is possible."<ref>{{S11}} p.273</ref>
Not only is it possible to go beyond [[identification]], but it is necessary, for otherwise it is not [[psychoanalysis]] but [[suggestion]], which is the antithesis of [[psychoanalysis]].
<blockquote>"The fundamental mainspring of the analytic operation is the maintenance of the distance between the I - identification - and the a."<ref>{{S11}} p.273</ref></blockquote>
=='Liquidation' of the Transference==
Lacan also rejects the idea that the [[end of analysis]] involves the 'liquidation' of the [[transference]].<ref>{{S11}} 267</ref>
The idea that the [[transference]] can be 'liquidated' is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of the [[transference]], according to which the [[transference]] is viewed as a kind of [[illusion]] which can be transcended.
Such a view is erroneous because it entirely overlooks the [[symbolic]] nature of the transference; transference is part of the essential [[structure]] of [[speech]].
Although [[analytic treatment]] involves the resolution of the particular [[transference]] relationship established with the [[analyst]], [[transference]] itself still subsists after the [[end of analysis]].
==What it is not==
Other misconceptions of the [[end of analysis]] which [[Lacan]] rejects are: "strengthening the ego", "adaptation to reality" and "happiness".
The [[end of analysis]] is not the disappearance of the [[symptom]], nor the [[cure]] of an underlying disease (e.g. [[neurosis]]), since [[analysis]] is not essentially a therapeutic process but a search for [[truth]], and the [[truth]] is not always beneficial.<ref>{{S17}} p.122</ref>
==See Also==
* [[Treatment]]
* [[Truth]]
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Treatment]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Terms]]
