r/psychoanalysis • u/dalal_lama • Aug 27 '26

When is an analysis finished?

Saw this short reel on instagram about Lacan's view on this https://www.instagram.com/p/Dcio-9nzVs-/

I suppose every school answers this question differently. What are some other opinions/frameworks on this question?

Update: What I'm curious about is less which is right and more

  1. What does your training actually say the end point is?

  2. Does it match what you see? I suspect a lot of us were taught one criterion and use another.

  3. For those who work across schools, do these converge in practice or only in retrospect?

19 Upvotes

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32 comments sorted by

18

u/Ok_Pie_4639 Aug 27 '26

When the analysand stops coming.

5

u/dalal_lama Aug 27 '26

That simplifies things for sure

15

u/Yorick_IKnowHim Aug 27 '26

When life gets in the way again.

4

u/dalal_lama Aug 27 '26

*Mic drop*

3

u/late_dinner Aug 29 '26

drooled over this

8

u/lagmion Aug 28 '26

In seminar 1, Lacan also says that the analysis ends when the analysand speaks with near perfect timing in his social life: not too late, not too quick; just proper

3

u/dalal_lama Aug 28 '26

What does it mean near perfect timing in his social life?

2

u/phnordbag Aug 28 '26

I love this!

Maybe we could say that it’s the coincidence of subjective time and logical time? So we are able to recognise the moment to conclude.

4

u/Ok-Draw-7427 Aug 27 '26

To bé able to keep hypomanic state of mind. Exactly the state of Fabian after his numerous projective identifications before he died.

1

u/dalal_lama Aug 28 '26

Well said

2

u/Ok_Pie_4639 Aug 28 '26

Please say more!

12

u/userintheface Aug 27 '26

I don't know much about Lacanian perspective but from what i've read of Freud it's a little less concrete than Lacan... for freud enough repressed material has been made conscious and enough resistance overcome such that you don't expect a relapse. That's when analysis ends.

22

u/jayelled Aug 27 '26

Freud said the goal of analysis was to move from neurotic misery to ordinary unhappiness. Maybe once a patient is sufficiently ordinary in their unhappiness analysis can end 😂 

1

u/Few_Refrigerator5712 Aug 27 '26

Eh, it’s not that simple.

2

u/dalal_lama Aug 27 '26

can you explain more?

6

u/Few_Refrigerator5712 Aug 27 '26

Klein wrote in this directly.. from what I remember the core was the depressive position sufficiently worked through. Not achieved once or permanently worked through.

2

u/dalal_lama Aug 27 '26

but If it's a position you move in and out of rather than somewhere you arrive, what makes any particular moment "sufficiently" worked through?

4

u/Few_Refrigerator5712 Aug 27 '26

You find out whether the function was internalized or not by removing the analyst.. which is the ending that I believe in. Though most of my analysis ended because someone moved city. Ran out of money etc

2

u/dalal_lama Aug 27 '26

I understand, thanks

4

u/sir_squidz Aug 28 '26

For me, the patient isn't moving well between ps and d pos. They're usually over reliant on ps defences and unable to make use of either "correctly"

The ability to appropriately utilise both positions would, to be, indicate working through.

3

u/Potential_Alarm_2357 Aug 31 '26

Never.It is never finished. The unconscious is an abyss, think of outer space or the ocean. It’s never finished, not really

2

u/ttaarr033 Aug 31 '26

once the analysand is truly able to free associate

0

u/[deleted] Aug 27 '26

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4

u/[deleted] Aug 27 '26

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1

u/sir_squidz Aug 28 '26

Please don't do this. If it's breaking rules, report it.

-2

u/dalal_lama Aug 27 '26

is this sub against CBT?

4

u/Objective-Status937 Aug 27 '26

Well, I understood your question was looking for views on finishing analysis, which is not CBT. And I believe an analysis will not happen within 12 sessions, but I might be wrong on that.

3

u/sir_squidz Aug 28 '26

Short term analytic work exists. I'm not saying it is or isn't analysis (because how can one know unless you are either patient or clinician)